O'Donovan

name

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"o-donovan" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“O'Donovan” is uncommon English (frequency #71,750 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#71,750
frequency rank, English
1,431
“O” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A surname from Irish.

Corpus desk

Index EN-o-donovan · O'Donovan · English

O'Donovan · rank #71,750 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #71,750
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,431
  • PHOTO-FINISH octet

Nearest frequency peer: octet (+2 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “O'Donovan”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “O'Donovan” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for O'Donovan
PropertyValue
HeadwordO'Donovan
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters9
Frequency rank#71,750
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “O'Donovan” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).O'Donovanfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “octet” (#71,752), “nucleoside” (#71,747), “oes” (#71,753). Among 1,431 “O” headwords, “O'Donovan” is #71,750. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

O'Donovan is uncommon English at frequency #71,750 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A surname from Irish.".

Zero misspellings are on record for O'Donovan in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Irish Ó Dunnabháin. The correct English form is O'Donovan, spelled O-'-D-O-N-O-V-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A surname from Irish.

Etymology

From Irish Ó Dunnabháin.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "O'Donovan"?
"O'Donovan" is spelled O-'-D-O-N-O-V-A-N.
What does "O'Donovan" mean?
As a proper noun, "O'Donovan" means: A surname from Irish.
What is the origin of the word "O'Donovan"?
From Irish Ó Dunnabháin. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "O'Donovan", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

nicotinic#71,737Petronius#71,788phthalate#71,791pluralist#71,796

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list