Docherty (or O’Docherty) is a popular Irish name which comes from the Gaelic O’Dochartargh (the prefix ‘O’ means ‘descendant of’). O’Dochartargh is derived from the Gaelic first name Dochartach, which was originally a nickname meaning variously ‘stern’, ‘obstructive’, or ‘hurtful’.

As with virtually all names transliterated from the Gaelic-where the letters are often not equivalent in sound to the corresponding letters in English-there are many variations of Docherty. The most frequent are Dougharty, Dougherty, Doherty, Docharty and Daugherty. All originate mainly from Ulster and Donegal (part of the ancient Ulster, but not of the modern province so named, being now part of the Republic), and are still found there in profusion. The name also occurs, though rarely, on the Isle of Man.

Furthermore, the form Doherty (or O’Doherty) is corruptly derived from the name O’Doorty, a Tipperary name which derives from the Gaelic O’Dubhartargh. The root here is utterly different from Dochartach and its actual meaning remains obscure, apart from the prefix ‘Dubh-’ which means ‘black’.

Dorrity is a corrupt variation of Doherty found in Oriel. Contrary to some opinions, the name Doggett is not related. It is an Old English name whose origins are obscure-possibly deriving from an Old English diminutive for dog.

Two brothers, Reginald and Hugh Doherty, dominated turn- of-the-century English lawn tennis. Reginald, known as ‘Big Do’, was All-England singles champion at Wimbledon from 1897 to 1900 and was followed, from 1902 to 1906, by Hugh (‘Little Do’). They were also doubles champions from 1897 to 1905, while Hugh became American national champion in 1903, the year in which the brothers jointly wrote the sports classic, On Lawn Tennis. Between them, the pair won 19 championships in 10 years.

Dora Jean Dougherty, US aviation psychologist and pilot, set two world records in 1961 for women helicopter pilots. She flew a Bell 47G-3 helicopter to an altitude of 19,406 feet. Two days later she climbed back into her machine and made a 404-mile hop in only 4 hours 26 minutes, beating the existing record by nearly 60 miles. She also claimed a third record for the point-to-point speed of the flight. All world records for women helicopter pilots had previously been held by Russians.

English footballer Michael Docherty is, like his famous father, Tommy, a first-rate defender. He became Burnley’s youngest-ever captain when, at 19, he headed the League side against Everton on 22 November 1969.

The surname (and its variations) is uncommonly used as the name of towns and geographic features. There is a Dochart River in central Scotland and a small town in the United States (Georgia) called Dougherty Plain.

With about 9,500 namesakes Docherty is the 75th most popular surname in Scotland. Thus about one out of every 550 Scots is named Docherty. With about 22,000, the variant spelling Doherty is Ireland’s 15th most popular surname. (Neither version of the surname is common enough throughout England and Wales to be counted separately.) Around the world Dochertys and Dohertys are most common in Melbourne (one in 1,925 families), Sydney (one in 2,928) and Ottawa (one in 3,170). In the United States there are fewer than 10,000 Dochertys, so an accurate count is not available for this version. There are also just under 30,000 estimated Dohertys. Thus this is their 1,068th most popular surname.