Clan Rising

Robinson

Son of Robin, the Danelaw's favourite -son, and the first woman President of Ireland.

Origin
Yorkshire & the Humber, England
Famous bearer
Mary Robinson (b. 1944), seventh President of Ireland 1990–1997
Register
English family

This name is thick on both sides of the border, so the map shows the whole of the British Isles with every region it touches highlighted. It is a regional pattern for the surname, not proof that your branch lived in each place.

Territory of Robinson across England and Ireland

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Robinson

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Robinson community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Robinson has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Robinson clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

Help rebuild the Robinson clan →

What does the Robinson name mean?

Son of Robin, Robin a diminutive of Robert. Northern England favours -son patronymics where Welsh lines often read Roberts. The Irish-Robinson pool, by the 1660s Cromwellian-Williamite planter migrations, is principally an Anglo-Irish Protestant settler-family surname concentrated in the Pale counties and Ulster.

The history of Robinson

Robinson is a shire name (Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire) before it was a global one. Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (née Bourke, born 1944 at Ballina in County Mayo, married 1970 to Nicholas Robinson of the Anglo-Irish Robinson legal family), the seventh President of Ireland (1990–1997) and the first woman to hold the office, brought the surname into the centre of late-twentieth-century Irish public life.

Champions of the Robinson name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Also found in

The Robinson name has substantial historical presence beyond England. See it on Ireland.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Robinson name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Notable bearers of the Robinson name

  • Mary Robinson (b. 1944), seventh President of Ireland 1990–1997
  • W. Heath Robinson (1872–1944), cartoonist

Stories of Robinson

Frequently asked

What does the surname Robinson mean?

Son of Robin, Robin a diminutive of Robert. Northern England favours -son patronymics where Welsh lines often read Roberts. The Irish-Robinson pool, by the 1660s Cromwellian-Williamite planter migrations, is principally an Anglo-Irish Protestant settler-family surname concentrated in the Pale counties and Ulster. Robinson is a shire name (Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire) before it was a global one.

Where does the Robinson family come from?

The Robinson family is rooted in Yorkshire & the Humber and North East, in England. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in City of York, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Robinson family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Robinson name has been concentrated in Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Lincolnshire. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Robinson a England surname?

Robinson is primarily a England surname; it also has substantial historical presence in Ireland. The editorial home of the name in this atlas is England, where the record is densest, with the cross-border presence noted under "Also found in".

How old is the Robinson surname?

Robinson is a shire name (Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire) before it was a global one. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Robinson name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Robinson family known for?

Son of Robin, the Danelaw's favourite -son, and the first woman President of Ireland. Robinson is a shire name (Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire) before it was a global one.

Who is the most famous Robinson?

The best-known bearer of the Robinson name is Mary Robinson (b. 1944), seventh President of Ireland 1990–1997. Other prominent figures of the family include W. Heath Robinson (1872–1944), cartoonist.

Who are some famous Robinsons?

Notable bearers of the Robinson name include Mary Robinson (b. 1944), seventh President of Ireland 1990–1997 and W. Heath Robinson (1872–1944), cartoonist. Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Robinson family?

The Robinson family is associated with Mary Robinson elected President of Ireland. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Mary Robinson elected President of Ireland?

On the morning of Saturday the third of November 1990, in the Royal Dublin Society count-centre at Ballsbridge in south Dublin, Mary Therese Winifred Robinson, forty-six years old, the Trinity College Dublin law professor and former Labour senator, was declared elected as the seventh President of Ireland after a four-way election (Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan; Fine Gael's Austin Currie; Labour's Robinson; and the final transfer that gave her the presidency on the second count) under the PR-STV preferential voting system used for Irish presidential elections. She was the first woman elected to the office, the first non-Fianna Fáil president since 1945, and (as a civil-rights-and-divorce-and-contraception campaigning lawyer of the 1970s) the first Irish president from the progressive-feminist political tradition. The event is dated to 1990.

Where is the Robinson surname found today?

England is the primary historical home of the Robinson surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same England origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Robinson family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Robinson family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of England so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Robinson family today?

The seat for the head of the Robinson family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.

Neighbouring clans