Holland

An Irish surname of Cork, Dublin, and Galway. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 102,538 people, the 305th most common surname in the country.

Holland 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.

Ó Haoláin. This family stood in Co. Laois and Co. Offaly.

Ó Hioláin

Ó Holáin

Ó Huallacháin, descendant of Uallachán (diminutive of uallach , proud). This family stood in Co. Mayo, Co. Offaly, and Co. Roscommon.

Ó Maolchallann, descendant of Maolchallann (chief of the kalends). This family stood in the barony of Kenry in Co. Limerick, Co. Antrim, Co. Derry, and Co. Meath.

Where the name comes from

Holland here is almost always Ó hAoláin, descendant of Faolán, a little wolf, with the initial f softened away. It was a common surname in Offaly and Leix in the 16th century and spread from there. Which name it turned into depended on how the province said its vowels: Heelan in Munster, Hyland in Leinster, Holland in Ulster.

That the Connacht forms of the same name are also anglicised Whelan is what gives the game away, because Whelan and Holland are then the same word twice.

Two other names arrive at Holland as well. Ó hUallacháin, descendant of the little proud one, from uallach, was very common in West Cork, where it is now often Holland, and in Mayo and Roscommon, where it is Nolan instead. And Ó Maolchallann, chief of the kalends, belonged to an ecclesiastical family in Ulster who from at least the beginning of the 12th century down to the end of the 18th were keepers of the Bell of St. Patrick, known as the Bell of the Testament. They were seated in the barony (an old land division, several parishes across) of Loghinsholin in the present county of Derry, and they appear to be the only family of the name still extant.

Rugged Atlantic coastline at Allihies, Cork, Ireland, with layered slate cliffs, fine art landscape photograph by Peter Cox
Allihies Coast, Cork

The Holland counties, photographed

Cork

Cork is the largest county in Ireland. Three peninsulas run west into the Atlantic: Beara, Sheep's Head and Mizen, with the population thinning the further out you go. My gallery is in Glengarriff at the head of Bantry Bay, so it's the ground I photograph most.

Sunset over Dun an Oir ruins and sea stacks on Cape Clear Island, Cork, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxDún an Óir, Cape Clear Island, Cork Co. Cork The Fastnet Lighthouse standing proud on a calm summer evening off West Cork in black and white panoramic viewThe Fastnet Lighthouse, Co. Cork Co. Cork Aerial view of the Fastnet Lighthouse surrounded by angry seas off West Cork with Cape Clear Island on the horizonThe Fastnet from the Air Co. Cork Inside the rotating lantern of the Fastnet Lighthouse with Fresnel lenses, ladder, and a rainbow projected on a poleInside the Lantern, the Fastnet Lighthouse, Co. Cork Co. Cork

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.

Moonlight reflecting on the sea near the Muglins lighthouse off Dalkey Island, Dublin, with the Kish light on the horizonThe Muglins by Moonlight II Co. Dublin Long exposure panoramic view of the White Rock swimming platform at Killiney Bay, Dublin, floating in misty high-tide watersThe White Rock, Killiney Bay, Co. Dublin Co. Dublin Heron fishing at dawn on the Dublin coast — fine art wildlife photograph by Peter CoxHeron, Co. Dublin Co. Dublin

Galway

Connemara takes up the west of the county: the Twelve Bens, blanket bog, and fields walled off into very small squares. The Aran Islands sit at the mouth of Galway Bay. The Gaeltacht starts a few miles west of Galway city.

Enormous waves sending spray over 30-metre sea cliffs at Poll an tSeidein on Inis Meain, Aran Islands at sunsetPoll an tSéideáin, Inis Meáin, Aran Islands, Co. Galway Co. Galway The rusting Plassey shipwreck on Inis Oirr, Aran Islands, seen from above with the Atlantic Ocean beyondThe Plassey, Inis Oirr, Aran Islands, Co. Galway Co. Galway Dramatic storm waves battering tall cliffs at sunset on the west coast of Inis Meain, Aran IslandsPoll an tSéideáin Panoramic, Inis Meáin, Aran Islands, Co. Galway Co. Galway Turf drying at sunset with Connemara mountains in the background, Co. Galway, Ireland, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxConnemara Turf, Co. Galway Co. Galway

All Cork prints · All Dublin prints · All Galway prints

Notable bearers

Agnieszka Holland (born 1948), writer, screenwriter, and director.

Willa Holland (born 1991), actor and model.

Dexter Holland (born 1965), singer, composer, and songwriter.

André Holland (born 1979), actor.

Tom Holland (born 1943), actor, screenwriter, and film director.

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: Johnson · Collins · Murphy · Howard · Coleman · Hayes · Mason · Palmer · Warren · Ryan · Lane · Franklin

How common the name was

In 1890, 52 births were registered under Holland in Ireland, most of them in Cork, Dublin, and Galway.

Munster 22
Ulster 12
Leinster 10
Connacht 8
Ireland 52