O'Rourke
"o-rourke" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“O'Rourke” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,901 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #30,901
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A surname from Irish.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | O'Rourke |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #30,901 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “O'Rourke” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for O'Rourke is 8 letters long, classified as a proper noun. Corpus data places it at rank #30,901 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A surname from Irish.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for O'Rourke, with forms such as "'orourke", "o'orurke", and "o'roruke". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Anglicized form of Irish Ó Ruairc (“descendant of Ruarc”), a Gaelicized form of the Old Norse personal name Hrórekr (“Roderick”). The correct English form is O'Rourke, spelled O-'-R-O-U-R-K-E.
Definition
- 1A surname from Irish.
Etymology
Anglicized form of Irish Ó Ruairc (“descendant of Ruarc”), a Gaelicized form of the Old Norse personal name Hrórekr (“Roderick”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: 'orourke,o'orurke,o'roruke,o'roukre,o'rourek,o'rourkke,o'rourrke,o'rrourke,o'ruorke,or'ourke
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of O'Rourke - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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'Rourke"?
What does "O'Rourke" mean?
What are common misspellings of "O'Rourke"?
What is the origin of the word "O'Rourke"?
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Using “O'Rourke”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-'-R-O-U-R-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.