Macaulay
A Scottish masculine name meaning "son of the unfortunate".
Name Census estimates that about 259 living Americans carry the first name Macaulay. It is a predominantly male name (94.3% of registrations). The average person named Macaulay today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Macaulay births was 1992 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Macaulay. 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 Macaulay with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
259
~ 1 in 1,323,376 Americans
Peak year
1992
36 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,517
Tracked since 1990
Census
Macaulay in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 270 people with the first name Macaulay, which placed it at #31,633 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
#31,633
National first-name rank
People counted
270
270 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Macaulay
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Macaulay is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Macaulay 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 Macaulay at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.3% · 187
- Black or African American15.6% · 42
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 24
- Two or more races4.4% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Macaulay
Macaulay leans heavily male at 94.3% of total registrations, but 15 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Macaulay as a male name
- Ranked #7,517 in 2024
- 11 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (36 births)
Macaulay as a female name
- Ranked #14,789 in 1994
- 5 female births in 1994
- Peak: 1991 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Macaulay leans strongly male. 228 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 35 female bearers (13.3%).
Popularity
Macaulay: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Macaulay from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 143 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Macaulay remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Macaulay 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 Macaulay during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Macaulays live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Iowa, Ohio recorded the most babies named Macaulay, while Ohio, Iowa, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Macaulay
The name Macaulay has its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language, derived from the words "mac" meaning "son" and "aulay" meaning "servant of the fire." It is believed to have emerged as a personal name in the 12th century among Scottish clans, particularly in the Highlands region.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Macaulay can be found in the Scottish Ragman Rolls of 1296, where it appears as "Makcouluoch." This document recorded individuals who swore allegiance to King Edward I of England during his conquest of Scotland.
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with Aulay Macaulay, a Scottish chieftain who led the Macaulay clan in the West Highlands. His descendants played a significant role in Scottish history, with several notable figures bearing the name.
One of the most famous individuals with the name Macaulay was Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), a British historian, essayist, and politician. He is renowned for his influential work, "The History of England from the Accession of James II," which established him as a prominent literary figure of the Victorian era.
Another notable individual was Aulay Macaulay (1758-1819), a Scottish chemist and surgeon who served in the British East India Company. He made significant contributions to the study of natural history and the exploration of the Indian subcontinent.
In the field of literature, Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) was a British novelist and essayist known for her satirical works, including "The Towers of Trebizond" and "The World My Wilderness."
The name Macaulay also found its way into the world of art through Donald Macaulay (1906-1989), a British painter and illustrator renowned for his architectural drawings and illustrations of Roman ruins.
While the name Macaulay has Scottish origins, it has been adopted and used in various parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries, due to the influence of the British Empire and the historical connections between Scotland and other regions.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Macaulay
People
Macaulay + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Macaulay 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
Macaulay: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Macaulay?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 259 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Macaulay 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 1,323,376 US residents.
Is Macaulay a common name?
We classify Macaulay as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 264 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Macaulay most popular?
The single biggest year for Macaulay was 1992, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Macaulay is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Macaulay in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 270 people with the name Macaulay, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,633 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 Macaulay 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 Macaulay?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Macaulay leans strongly male. 228 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 35 female bearers (13.3%). 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 Macaulay?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Macaulay is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Macaulay most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Macaulay in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.3% (187 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 Macaulay in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Macaulay a male name?
Yes, 94.3% of people registered as Macaulay 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 Macaulay still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Macaulay 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 Macaulay 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 have the name Macaulay?
Find out how many people share the name Macaulay on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.