Lee

An Irish surname of Antrim, Dublin, and Galway. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 693,023 people, the 21st most common surname in the country.

Lee 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.

de Léigh. This family stood in Co. Kildare, Co. Kilkenny, and Co. Meath.

Liath

Mac An Leagha

Mac Laoidhigh, son of Laoidheach (poetic). This family stood in Co. Laois.

Ó Laoidhigh, descendant of Laoidheach (poetic)

Where the name comes from

Lee is often a doctor. Ó Laoidhigh, descendant of Laoidheach, the poetic one, belonged to a West Connacht family who were chiefs of Ui Briuin Eola and erenaghs (the hereditary lay heads of families that held church lands) of Annadown. Some were distinguished as ecclesiastics, but they are best known as a medical family, hereditary physicians to the O'Flahertys for many centuries. As early as the 15th century a learned member of the family produced a most complete course of medicine, written in Latin and Irish.

Mac an Leagha is son of the physician, from liaigh, and there were several scattered families of the name, each doubtless an offshoot of one or other of the great medical families. It gives MacKinlay, MacKinley, MacAlea, MacClay and Lee.

The others are quieter. Mac Laoidhigh belonged to an old family in Leix; Liath is simply the Irish for grey or hoary, an epithet which supplanted the real surname; and de Léigh is the Norman de Leye, at the meadow, whose family came about the time of the invasion and settled in Meath, Kildare and Kilkenny.

The Giant's Causeway at twilight with wet hexagonal basalt columns stretching to the sea and long exposure blurred waves
The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim

The Lee counties, photographed

Antrim

The Antrim coast road runs about 25 miles between the cliffs and the sea, with nine glens coming down to it. The rock is basalt, the same flow that formed the Giant's Causeway. Scotland is 12 miles off at the narrowest point and visible on a clear day.

The iconic Dark Hedges beech tree tunnel near Armoy in County Antrim with intertwined branches forming a brooding canopyThe Dark Hedges, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim Long exposure of Pan's Rock with its footbridge at dawn on the Antrim Causeway Coast, silky water and blurred clouds, Rathlin Island on the horizonPan's Rock, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim Sunrise over Colliery Bay with Fair Head cliffs and mountains, Co. Antrim, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxColliery Bay & Fair Head, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim Dunluce Castle on coastal cliffs with long exposure sea, Co. Antrim, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxDunluce Castle, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim

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 Antrim prints · All Dublin prints · All Galway prints

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: Smith · Brown · Miller · Wilson · Anderson · Thomas · Taylor · Moore · Jackson · Martin · Thompson · White

How common the name was

In 1890, 120 births were registered under Lee in Ireland, most of them in Antrim, Dublin, Galway, and Limerick.

Ulster 43
Leinster 33
Connacht 23
Munster 21
Ireland 120

Limerick is the one I haven't worked in.