Waters

An Irish surname of Sligo and Wexford. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 67,929 people, the 491st most common surname in the country.

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

Mac Conuisce. This family stood in Co. Mayo and Co. Monaghan.

Mac Uaitéir

Ó Fuaruisce

Ó Huaruisce

Ó Huisce

Ó Huiscín. This family stood in Co. Galway.

Ó Tuaruis, Ó Tuaruisc. This family stood in Co. Donegal.

Where the name comes from

Waters is a translation nearly every time, and usually a mistaken one. Ó hUaruisce is popularly supposed to come from fuar, cold, and uisce, water, and so is translated Waters and Coldwell; Ó Fuaruisce, an old surname in Sligo and Donegal, is more honestly Whoriskey; Ó hUisce is a Connacht surname; Ó hUiscín a Galway one, behind Heskin and Hoskins; and Ó Tuaruisc a Donegal one, behind Turish and Toorish.

Mac Conuisce is son of Cú-uisce, the water-hound, a Monaghan surname now also in use in Co. Mayo; it is popularly supposed to be son of the water, and generally translated Waters in consequence.

Mac Uaitéir has nothing to do with water at all. It is son of Walter, often pronounced Water, and it gives MacWatters, Waterson and Watters.

Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo
Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo

The Waters counties, photographed

Sligo

Benbulben is a limestone plateau with its sides cut away by ice, standing flat-topped over the plain. Knocknarea has a cairn on top, thought to be a passage tomb and never excavated. Strandhill and Mullaghmore get some of the biggest surf in Europe. Yeats is buried at Drumcliffe below Benbulben.

Ruined cottage on a blustery day in the Ox Mountains, Co. Sligo, Ireland, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxCottage, Ox Mountains, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo Aerial view of a stream winding across a beach to the sea, Co. Sligo, Ireland — fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxBeach Detail, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo Benbulben mountain bathed in sunset light, Co. Sligo, Ireland — fine art aerial landscape photograph by Peter CoxBenbulben, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo

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 Sligo prints · All Wexford prints

Notable bearers

Roger Waters (born 1943), singer, musician, and screenwriter.

John Waters (born 1946), actor, writer, and screenwriter.

Sarah Waters (born 1966), writer and novelist.

Ethel Waters (1896-1977), actor, singer, and musician.

Maxine Waters (born 1938), politician and teacher.

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, 47 births were registered under Waters in Ireland, most of them in Monaghan, Sligo, and Wexford.

Leinster 16
Connacht 13
Munster 10
Ulster 8
Ireland 47

Monaghan is the one I haven't worked in.