Butler
An Irish surname of Dublin and Tipperary. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 218,847 people, the 108th most common surname in the country.
Butler is the anglicised form of four distinct Irish names. Some you can hear in the English name; others look and sound nothing like it, and were simply swapped for it.
Builtéir
Buitiléir
Buitléir
de Buitiléir, De Buitléir
Where the name comes from
The Butlers are named after a job. de Buitléir is the Norman le Botiller, the butler, and the surname began when Henry II appointed Theobald Walter, the first of the family to settle in this country, to the office of chief butler of Ireland. Theobald was granted the baronies of Upper and Lower Ormond and other great possessions with it, and became the founder of one of the most illustrious of the Anglo-Norman families.
The Butler counties, photographed
Dublin
Dublin is a county as well as a city. The bay has Howth at the north end and Killiney Hill at the south, the Muglins are a pair of rocks off Dalkey, and the Dublin Mountains start about half an hour from the city centre.
Tipperary
Tipperary is landlocked. The Golden Vale running through it is the best dairy land in Ireland. The Galtees are along the southern border, with Galtymore at 917 metres. The Rock of Cashel is a limestone outcrop with a medieval cathedral and round tower on top of it.
All Dublin prints · All Tipperary prints
Notable bearers
Judith Butler (born 1956), writer, university teacher, and journalist.
Gerard Butler (born 1969), actor, film producer, and lawyer.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902), writer, composer, and novelist.
Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947), writer, politician, and diplomat.
Austin Butler (born 1991), actor, singer, and model.
About this page
The counties on this page are where the name was thickest on the ground in Ireland a century and a half ago, not a claim about any one family. Names moved around inside the country as much as they left it. The photographs are mine, made in the counties named.
More Irish surnames: Williams · Davis · Edwards · Cooper · Kelly · Cox · Brooks · Wood · James · Price · Jordan · Cole
How common the name was
In 1890, 172 births were registered under Butler in Ireland, most of them in Dublin, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Waterford.
| Leinster | 72 | 42% |
|---|---|---|
| Connacht | 25 | 15% |
| Ulster | 9 | 5% |
| Munster | no figure printed | |
| Ireland | 172 |
Kilkenny and Waterford are the ones I haven't worked in.