Connors
An Irish surname, usually a pluralized form of Connor/O'Connor meaning “descendant of Conchobhar.”
The #1,823 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 15,723 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Connors is the English surname form associated with the Irish name O'Conor/O'Connor, ultimately from Gaelic Conchobhar. That personal name is commonly understood as meaning something like “hound-lover” or “lover of hounds,” though older sources sometimes give different shades of meaning. The final -s reflects an English plural or possessive-style spelling that became fixed in surnames.
History
The name is strongly associated with Ireland and appears in historical records as a variant of Connor and O'Connor. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century surname works note Connors as one of the common Irish sept surnames, with concentrations especially in parts of southern Ireland. In the United States it has remained a recognizably Irish-American surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early Irish surname lists often grouped Connors together with Connor and O'Connor as forms of the same underlying Gaelic family name.
From the historical record
“nors, the O'Flahertys, and the O'Mal- leys are somebodies, while their distant kinsmen, the Connors, the Flahertys, and the Malleys ai"e nohodies! Much the same notion prcA'ails in France concerning the prefix Dc. In Ireland 2 I”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom