Macgregor
Gaelic name meaning "son of the tall grizzled one".
Name Census estimates that about 277 living Americans carry the first name Macgregor. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Macgregor today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Macgregor births was 2000 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Macgregor. 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 Macgregor with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
277
~ 1 in 1,237,380 Americans
Peak year
2000
17 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2019 SSA rank
#10,406
Tracked since 1974
Census
Macgregor in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 335 people with the first name Macgregor, which placed it at #27,353 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
#27,353
National first-name rank
People counted
335
335 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Macgregor
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Macgregor is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.5%) and Black (3.0%). 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 Macgregor 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 Macgregor at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.4% · 296
- Two or more races4.5% · 15
- Black or African American3.0% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Macgregor: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Macgregor from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 109 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Macgregor remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Macgregor 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 Macgregor during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Macgregor
The name Macgregor is of Scottish origin and has its roots in the Gaelic language. It is a patronymic name, meaning "son of Gregor" or "son of a Greek man." The prefix "Mac" means "son of" in Gaelic.
The name is believed to have originated in the 12th century, during the Middle Ages in Scotland. It is derived from the ancient personal name Gregor, which is the Scottish form of the Greek name Gregorios, meaning "watchful" or "vigilant."
The Macgregor clan was a prominent Highland Scottish clan that played a significant role in the history of Scotland. The clan's ancestral lands were located in the regions of Argyll and Perthshire. The name Macgregor is closely associated with this clan and its rich cultural heritage.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Macgregor can be found in the Ragman Rolls, a collection of documents from the late 13th century that recorded the names of Scottish nobles who swore allegiance to King Edward I of England. The name "Gregore Makgregre" appears in these rolls.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Macgregor. One of the most famous was Rob Roy Macgregor (1671-1734), a Scottish folk hero and outlaw who fought against the Duke of Montrose's oppressive policies. Another notable figure was Sir Duncan Macgregor (1787-1881), a British military officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars and later became the Governor of the British Virgin Islands.
Sir Evan John Macgregor (1828-1892) was a Scottish-born Australian politician and colonial administrator who served as the Chief Secretary of Queensland. John Macgregor (1825-1892) was a Scottish explorer and colonial administrator who explored parts of West Africa and served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the British territories in the region.
Lastly, Gregor Macgregor (1786-1845), a Scottish adventurer and soldier, gained fame for his attempts to establish a colony in Central America, which he called the "Territory of Poyais." Despite his exploits being considered fraudulent, his name has become associated with the concept of utopian schemes.
People
Macgregor + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Macgregor 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
Macgregor: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Macgregor?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Macgregor 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 1,237,380 US residents.
Is Macgregor a common name?
We classify Macgregor as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 282 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Macgregor most popular?
The single biggest year for Macgregor was 2000, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Macgregor is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Macgregor in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 335 people with the name Macgregor, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,353 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 Macgregor 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 Macgregor?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Macgregor leans strongly male. 329 people counted with this name were male (97.3%), compared with 9 female bearers (2.7%). 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 Macgregor?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Macgregor is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.5%) and Black (3.0%). 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 Macgregor most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Macgregor in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (296 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 Macgregor in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Macgregor a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Macgregor 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 Macgregor still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Macgregor 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 Macgregor 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 named Macgregor?
Find out how many Americans are named Macgregor on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.