Cox
An Irish surname of Dublin. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 261,231 people, the 78th most common surname in the country.
Cox is the anglicised form of five distinct Irish names. Some you can hear in the English name; others look and sound nothing like it, and were simply swapped for it.
Cocs
Mac An Choiligh. This family stood in Co. Roscommon.
Mac Coiligin. This family stood in Co. Cork.
Mag Coilidh, Mag Coiligh
Ó Coiligh, descendant of Coileach (cock). This family stood in Co. Donegal.
Where the name comes from
Cox in Ireland is usually a rooster. Mac an Choiligh is son of the cock, from coileach, and it belonged to a Roscommon family who were coarbs (the hereditary successors to a monastery's founder) of St. Barry at Kilbarry in the east of that county. It gives MacQuilly, and by translation Cox.
Ó Coiligh, descendant of Coileach, is the same bird: a rare surname in Donegal and parts of Connacht, anglicised Cox and also Woods. Mag Coiligh is a variant, written Magilly and MacGilly, and Mac Coiligin is a Cork surname of the same shape.
Cocs, on the other hand, is just the English surname Cox put into Irish spelling.
Dublin, photographed
Photographs made in Dublin.
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.
Notable bearers
Courteney Cox (born 1964), actor, film director, and film producer.
Laverne Cox (born 1972), actor, film producer, and television producer.
Brian Cox (born 1946), actor and film director.
Jo Cox (1974-2016), politician.
Charlie Cox (born 1982), actor.
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 · Brooks · Wood · James · Price · Butler · Jordan · Cole
How common the name was
In 1890, 75 births were registered under Cox in Ireland, most of them in Dublin and Roscommon.
| Leinster | 27 | 36% |
|---|---|---|
| Connacht | 22 | 29% |
| Ulster | 15 | 20% |
| Munster | 11 | 15% |
| Ireland | 75 |
Roscommon is the one I haven't worked in.