Lambert

An Irish surname of Dublin and Wexford. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 93,678 people, the 329th most common surname in the country.

Lambert is the anglicised form of two distinct Irish names. Some you can hear in the English name; others look and sound nothing like it, and were simply swapped for it.

Laimbeart. This family stood in Co. Dublin.

Lamport. This family stood in Co. Wexford.

Where the name comes from

Laimbeart is son of Lambart, a Teutonic personal name; both spellings occur in Domesday Book. The surname is old here but apparently confined to Dublin. Lamport is a different name entirely, of Lamport, a parish in Northamptonshire, and the Lamports were an old Wexford family; the two have been confused ever since.

Moonlight reflecting on the sea near the Muglins lighthouse off Dalkey Island, Dublin, with the Kish light on the horizon
The Muglins by Moonlight II

The Lambert 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.

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

Wexford

Wexford gets more sunshine than anywhere else in Ireland. Hook Head lighthouse has been working since the thirteenth century, which makes it one of the oldest in the world. The beaches on that coast, Curracloe and Rosslare among them, run for miles and are mostly empty.

Hook Lighthouse beam reflecting across calm waters at dusk, Co. Wexford — fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxHook Lighthouse at Dusk, Wexford Co. Wexford Black and white panoramic of Hook Head lighthouse and wild sea under brooding skies, Co. Wexford — fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxHook Head, Co. Wexford Co. Wexford Moonrise, Tramore, Co. WexfordMoonrise, Tramore, Co. Wexford Co. Wexford Long exposure of carnival Ferris wheel at night on the coast, Tramore, Co. Wexford, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxCarnival, Tramore, Co. Wexford Co. Wexford

All Dublin prints · All Wexford prints

Notable bearers

Adam Lambert (born 1982), actor, singer, and musician.

Christopher Lambert (born 1957), actor, screenwriter, and film producer.

Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777), writer, physicist, and philosopher.

Rickie Lambert (born 1982), association football player.

Miranda Lambert (born 1983), singer, musician, and singer-songwriter.

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 · Butler · Jordan

How common the name was

In 1890, 22 births were registered under Lambert in Ireland, most of them in Dublin and Wexford.

Leinster 13
Connacht 4
Ulster 4
Munster 1
Ireland 22