Dowd Surname History

Dowd

At the end of the nineteenth century, the vast majority of bearers of this surname, by a proportion of four to one, were "Dowd" rather than "O'Dowd". Since then, a large-scale resumption of the "O" has reversed the proportions, with "O'Dowd" now by far the most popular. The original Irish name was Ó Dubhda, from dubh, meaning "black". In the traditional genealogies, the family is one of the Uí Fiachraigh , a large tribal grouping tracing its origin back to Fiachra, brother of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fifth century monarch supposedly responsible for kidnapping St. Patrick to Ireland. The O'Dowds were the most powerful in this group, and for centuries their territory including large parts of north-west Mayo and west Sligo, in particular the baronies of Erris and Tirawley in Mayo and Tireragh in Sligo. The Norman invasion of the 13th century curtailed their power, but they retained many of their possessions and much of their influence down to the seventeenth century, as witnessed by the number of O’Dowd bishops of Killalla from the 14th to the 16th centuries. As late as the eighteenth century, a common toast in the Ballina area of Mayo was "Súil Uí Dhubhda le Árd na Rioch!", a reference to the O’Dowd’s hopes of regaining their ancestral possession of Ardnaree. The last traditional chief of the family was killed at the battle of the Boyne in 1690, and is said to have been almost 7 feet tall, great stature having always been a feature of the O’Dowds. The name is still most numerous today in the Sligo/Mayo district. The surname also appears to have arisen separately in two other areas of the country, in Munster, where the anglicisations "Doody" and "Duddy" are quite frequent in the Kerry area, and in Derry, where the anglicisation is almost invariably "Duddy". .Dan O’Dowd (1903-1989) was a Dublin uilleann piper and pipe-maker, best remembered for his role in keeping the spirit of traditional music alive in the capital.
 
Source: IrishTimes
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?Surname=dowd&fuseaction=Go.