The Origins of the Doris Family.


Irish surnames are usually comprised of Mac or Ó with the forename of a famous ancestor. Mac means son of and Ó means grandson of. Thus MacCann (Mac Cana in the original Irish) means “Son of Cana”, and O’Brien (Ó Briain in the original Irish) means “Grandson of Brian”.

Ireland was one of the first countries in Europe to have a system of heritable surnames. They began to develop in the ninth century and it is thought that all Irish people would have taken a surname by the 11th. century.

It is clear from early anglicised forms of our name that the original form of the name was something like Ó Dubhruis. Thus, all members of the O’Doorish, Doorish, Dorris, Doris family are descended from an individual whose name was something like Dubhruis (pronounced Doorish).

If our eponymous ancestor was called Dubh Ruis or Dubhruis, what does this name mean and has history recorded anything about him? There is a full discussion of this in the book, The Doris Family of Lettermacaward, but the name seems to mean “Black-Haired One of the Headland”.

There are a few different individuals with the name Dubh Ruis in ancient Irish records. To distinguish these different Dubh Ruises, I will call them the West Cork Dubh Ruis, the Limerick Dubh Ruis and the Oriel Dubh Ruis. The West Cork Dubh Ruis was a poet and harper, the hero of an ancient romance. The Limerick Dubh Ruis was an ancestor of a number of saints and kings in that area. However, the Doris or Doorish family in historical times is associated with areas like Tyrone and Fermanagh in the north of Ireland and there was another Dubh Ruis who was associated with that area. I believe that he is the most likely candidate for our ancestor. This Dubh Ruis was a member of a branch of the Airghialla tribe called the Uí Chremthainn and he died at the beginning of the ninth century. There is a full discussion of this Dubh Ruis and the other Dub Ruis individuals in the book, including the line of descent of his family back to the High Kings of Ireland.