Macey
A French feminine name of uncertain meaning, perhaps connected to the Latin masculine name Matthaeus.
Name Census estimates that about 11,144 living Americans carry the first name Macey. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Macey today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Macey births was 2001 (561 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Macey. 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 Macey with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Macey is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 51 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 30,757 Americans
Peak year
2001
561 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2000 SSA rank
#1,418
Tracked since 1900
Census
Macey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,199 people with the first name Macey, which placed it at #2,433 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
#2,433
National first-name rank
People counted
10K
10,199 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Macey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Macey is White at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Macey 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 Macey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.0% · 8,773
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 517
- Two or more races4.0% · 412
- Black or African American2.7% · 274
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 121
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 102
Gender
Gender distribution for Macey
Out of the 11,457 babies given the name Macey since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Macey as a male name
- Ranked #8,766 in 2000
- 7 male births in 2000
- Peak: 1915 (7 births)
Macey as a female name
- Ranked #1,418 in 2024
- 157 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (561 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Macey leans strongly female. 10,074 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 118 male bearers (1.2%).
Popularity
Macey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Macey from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 4,827 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Macey 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 Macey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maceys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, California recorded the most babies named Macey, while New Mexico, Nevada, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 223 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Macey
The name Macey is believed to have originated from the ancient Celtic language, which was spoken in parts of Europe and the British Isles during the Iron Age and medieval periods. It is thought to be a variant of the name Macy, which is derived from the Old French name "Mahault" or "Mahaul," meaning "strength" or "power."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Macey can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and their properties in England, compiled in 1086 under the orders of William the Conqueror. The name appears in various spellings, such as "Maci" and "Macy," suggesting its long-standing presence in the region.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Macey was predominantly found in England and Scotland, where it was associated with individuals from various social strata, from peasants to nobility. One notable bearer of the name was Macey Reynald, a wealthy landowner who lived in Northumberland, England, during the late 13th century.
As the name spread across Europe, it was adopted by various cultures and underwent slight variations in spelling and pronunciation. In France, for instance, the name was sometimes rendered as "Macée" or "Macé," while in Germany, it took the form of "Matzke" or "Matzchen."
During the Renaissance period, several individuals bearing the name Macey achieved recognition in various fields. One such figure was Macey Renouard, a French scholar and philosopher who lived in the 16th century and wrote extensively on topics ranging from theology to natural philosophy.
In the 17th century, Macey Cradock, an English clergyman and author, gained fame for his influential works on religious and moral subjects. Similarly, Macey Bourdillon, a French painter active in the late 18th century, became renowned for his portraits and landscape paintings.
As the centuries passed, the name Macey continued to be used across different parts of the world, with notable bearers emerging in various fields, such as politics, literature, and the arts. One such individual was Macey Taylor, an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Representative from Virginia in the late 19th century.
People
Macey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Macey 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
Macey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Macey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,144 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Macey 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 30,757 US residents.
Is Macey a common name?
We classify Macey as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,457 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Macey most popular?
The single biggest year for Macey was 2001, when 561 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Macey is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Macey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,199 people with the name Macey, or 3.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,433 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 Macey 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 Macey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Macey leans strongly female. 10,074 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 118 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Macey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Macey is White at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Macey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Macey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.0% (8,773 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 Macey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Macey a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Macey in the SSA data are female. 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 Macey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Macey 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 Macey 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 common is the name Macey?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Macey at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.