Mac
An Americanized form of the Scottish Gaelic name Mac meaning "son".
Name Census estimates that about 7,864 living Americans carry the first name Mac. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Mac today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mac births was 2022 (470 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mac. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mac with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mac is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 53 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
7.9K
~ 1 in 43,585 Americans
Peak year
2022
470 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#696
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mac in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,432 people with the first name Mac, which placed it at #3,013 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,013
National first-name rank
People counted
7.4K
7,432 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mac
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mac is White at 72.8%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and Hispanic (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mac described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mac at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.8% · 5,408
- Black or African American11.8% · 875
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 481
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 344
- Two or more races3.6% · 268
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 56
Gender
Gender distribution for Mac
Out of the 11,058 babies given the name Mac since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Mac as a male name
- Ranked #696 in 2024
- 387 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (465 births)
Mac as a female name
- Ranked #10,816 in 2023
- 9 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2023 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mac leans strongly male. 7,065 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 366 female bearers (4.9%).
Popularity
Mac: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mac from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,925 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mac by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mac during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Macs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Mac, while West Virginia, Montana, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 145 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mac
The name Mac originated as a prefix added to surnames in Scotland, derived from the Gaelic "mac" meaning "son". It emerged as a standalone first name in the late 19th century, gaining popularity in the early 20th century.
Mac traces its roots to the medieval Scottish Gaelic language, where "mac" was a common patronymic prefix used before a father's name or surname. It signified a familial relationship, denoting "son of". This practice was widespread among Scottish and Irish families, reflecting the cultural importance of lineage and clan affiliations.
The earliest recorded instances of Mac as a first name can be found in historical documents and records from the late 1800s. One of the earliest known individuals with the first name Mac was Mac Stevenson, born in Scotland in 1875. Another early bearer of the name was Mac Forrester, an American baseball player who played in the late 19th century.
As the 20th century progressed, Mac gained traction as a distinct first name, particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. Notable figures with the first name Mac include Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr. John, an American singer-songwriter and pianist born in 1940. Mac Davis, an American singer-songwriter and actor born in 1942, was another prominent bearer of the name.
In the field of literature, Mac Hyman was an American author and journalist born in 1923, known for his work on crime fiction and journalism. Mac Lesgill, born in 1901, was a British author and screenwriter who contributed to several notable films and television series.
Mac also found its way into the world of sports, with Mac Jones, an American football quarterback for the New England Patriots, being a contemporary example. Born in 1998, Jones has made a name for himself in the National Football League (NFL).
Throughout its history, the name Mac has carried a sense of Scottish heritage and cultural significance, reflecting its origins as a patronymic prefix. While initially a surname component, it has evolved into a distinct first name, embraced by individuals from various backgrounds and cultures.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Mac
People
Mac + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mac as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mac: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mac?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,864 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mac going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 43,585 US residents.
Is Mac a common name?
We classify Mac as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,058 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mac most popular?
The single biggest year for Mac was 2022, when 470 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mac is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mac in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,432 people with the name Mac, or 2.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,013 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mac in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mac?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mac leans strongly male. 7,065 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 366 female bearers (4.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mac?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mac is White at 72.8%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and Hispanic (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mac most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mac in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.8% (5,408 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mac in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mac a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Mac in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mac still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mac in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mac can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Mac?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Mac at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.