Mackay
Son of fire; of Gaelic origin, meaning "son of the bright one".
Name Census estimates that about 293 living Americans carry the first name Mackay. It is a predominantly male name (92.9% of registrations). The average person named Mackay today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mackay births was 1996 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mackay. 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 Mackay with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
293
~ 1 in 1,169,810 Americans
Peak year
1996
14 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,499
Tracked since 1991
Census
Mackay in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 332 people with the first name Mackay, which placed it at #27,518 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
#27,518
National first-name rank
People counted
332
332 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mackay
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mackay is White at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.5%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Mackay 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 Mackay at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.5% · 284
- Two or more races4.5% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 12
- Black or African American3.3% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Mackay
Mackay leans heavily male at 92.9% of total registrations, but 21 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mackay as a male name
- Ranked #9,499 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (13 births)
Mackay as a female name
- Ranked #19,369 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 1996 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mackay leans strongly male. 274 people counted with this name were male (81.5%), compared with 62 female bearers (18.5%).
Popularity
Mackay: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mackay from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 107 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Mackay remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mackay 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 Mackay during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mackays live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mackay
The name Mackay is of Scottish origin, derived from the Gaelic Mac Aoidh, which means "son of fire" or "son of Hugh." It is believed to have emerged in the 12th century in the Western Isles of Scotland, particularly on the Isle of Islay.
The name is thought to be associated with the Clan Mackay, a Highland Scottish clan whose ancestral lands were located in the far north of the Scottish mainland, in the counties of Caithness and Sutherland. The Clan Mackay played a significant role in the history of Scotland, with members participating in various battles and conflicts.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mackay can be found in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient Irish chronicle that mentions a man named Mackay in the year 1211. The name also appears in various Scottish historical records and documents from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Mackay. One of the most famous was Æneas Mackay (1635-1696), a Scottish soldier and military commander who served in the Scottish and Russian armies. He is particularly renowned for his role in the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, where he fought against the Jacobite forces.
Another prominent figure was Robert Mackay (1840-1916), a Scottish-American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th Governor of Virginia from 1894 to 1898. He played a crucial role in the development of the state's infrastructure and education system.
John Mackay (1805-1889) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist who made a fortune in the Comstock Lode silver mines in Nevada. He was instrumental in the development of the mining industry in the American West and donated generously to various educational and charitable causes.
Clarence Mackay (1874-1938) was an American businessman, financier, and philanthropist. He inherited a significant fortune from his father, John Mackay, and was actively involved in various business ventures, including the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company and the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company.
Lastly, Charles Mackay (1814-1889) was a Scottish poet, journalist, and author best known for his work "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," which explored the psychology of crowd behavior and the phenomena of financial bubbles and economic crises.
People
Mackay + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mackay 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
Mackay: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mackay?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 293 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mackay 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 1,169,810 US residents.
Is Mackay a common name?
We classify Mackay as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 297 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mackay most popular?
The single biggest year for Mackay was 1996, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mackay is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mackay in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 332 people with the name Mackay, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,518 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 Mackay 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 Mackay?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mackay leans strongly male. 274 people counted with this name were male (81.5%), compared with 62 female bearers (18.5%). 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 Mackay?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mackay is White at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.5%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Mackay most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mackay in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.5% (284 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 Mackay in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mackay a male name?
Yes, 92.9% of people registered as Mackay 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 Mackay still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mackay 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 Mackay 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 people are called Mackay?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.