Given name & surname
Duffy
“descendant of Dubhthach”·“son of Duibhshíth”
Duffy is a surname from Irish.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Duffy is built from elements meaning “descendant of Dubhthach” and “son of Duibhshíth”.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1915. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Duffy through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 643
- 627 boys · 16 girls
- Most popular year
- 1961
- 26 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2012. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 22 in 1969. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 568 as a first name in 2020; 37,556 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Duffy’s family of names
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 4
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Similar names
If you love Duffy, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Robbins
Robbins is a surname from Robin.
>99% boys
Clavin
“son of Flaithimhín”
>99% boys
Duane
“a dark or swarthy man”
>99% boys
Kinney
Kinney is a surname from Irish.
>99% boys
Daron
“the great one” · “from a small rocky hill”
>99% boys
Cary
“from the river” · “from the fort on the hill”
95% boys · 5% girls
Ferry
“descendant of Fearadhach”
87% boys · 13% girls
Glennon
“from the secluded narrow valley”
>99% boys