We built a directory. It started with a question: who, in the public record today, carries one of the nine Ó Dubhda surname variants?

The answer turned out to be a lot of people. Comedians, musicians, scientists, politicians, soldiers, business leaders, writers, sports figures, religious leaders, activists, artists. After Wikipedia-based vetting, we landed on roughly 144 individuals across 14 categories.

A few you might know.

Boy George – Irish-descent New Romantic icon, born George O’Dowd. Chris O’Dowd – the Roscommon actor of The IT Crowd, Bridesmaids, and a hundred other things. Tom Dowd – the recording engineer who shaped Atlantic Records and the sound of mid-century American music. Cathie Wood – founder and CEO of ARK Invest, one of the most-watched investors of the 2020s. Ann Dowd – the Emmy-winning actor of The Handmaid’s Tale. Sir John Cornelius O’Dowd – the Victorian Judge Advocate General of the British Army.

And about 138 more.

We don’t just list them. We rank them. A fame-score algorithm pulls weekly signals from Wikipedia pageviews, Spotify monthly listeners, social-media follower counts, and a handful of other public sources to keep an honest, drift-resistant ranking. It updates by itself. The maths are documented on the site.

The point isn’t trophy-hunting. The point is showing the breadth and depth of one family across a thousand years and forty-some countries. If you carry one of the nine names, somewhere in that directory is someone you share a great-great-grandmother with.

Browse the 144 →

We are Ó Dubhda. We’re rebuilding the clan online at odubhda.org.