Murphy

See also: murphy

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɝfi/
• IPA^(key): /ˈmɜːfi/
• Homophone: murphy

Proper noun

Murphy

1. , the anglicized form of Irish Ó Murchadha
   • Herman Melville, Omoo

     After a long talk between these two, and a little broken English from the Frenchmen, our visitors took leave; but Father Murphy had hardly gone a dozen rods when back he came, inquiring whether we were in want of anything.

2. A unisex given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
   • 2012 Louise Erdrich, The Round House, Corsair (2013), →ISBN, page 178:

     Sonja made me promise I would go to college. She said she'd wanted her daughter, Murphy, to go. She'd named her baby Murphy because it could never be a stripper name. But her daughter had changed her name to London.

3. A census-designated place, the county seat of Owyhee County, Idaho, United States.
4. A town, the county seat of Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States.

Derived terms

• murphy
• Murphy drip
• Murphy-Lane bone skid
• Murphy's button
• Murphy's law
• Murphy's punch
• Murphy's test

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Murphy is the 64^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 308,417 individuals. Murphy is most common among White (83.11%) and Black (11.53%) individuals.