The Corca Laidhe was an ancient kingdom of Munster at its height around 200-300 C.E. in the first millennium. The subsequent rise of the Eoghanacht families and others exerted political pressures on the Corca Laidhe, which went into decline. By the first half of the second millennium, the old territory which once spread over much of southern Munster was largely confined to an area in west and middle Cork, particularly the coastline. The Corca Laidhe families living around 1100-1200 C.E. were documented in the "Great Book of Irish Genealogies" (known as GBIG) by Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh around 1650. The most well-known extraction from that work on Corca Laidhe families was by John O'Donovan, the 19th century scholar, and the Celtic Society, which published "The Genealogy of the Corca Laidhe" in their Miscellany.

The Corca Laidhe yDNA regional study maintains a list of Corca Laidhe surnames as well as background notes on these key surnames.

Woulfe might call a name a Corca Laidhe surname when it is not documented in the territory overseen by the Proprietors of the Corca Laidhe. Rather, Woulfe might have referred to a name listed in a possibly related territory, such as the Ó Cobhthaigh middle cantred.

Although it utilizes yDNA, the study is not a Y surname project; it is more of an archaeogenetic study designed to see if there were any distinctive or even unique Y DNA mutations that might have been carried by inhabitants of the kingdom.

The Corca Laidhe project Background and Link pages contain references.