Maguire
A given name of Irish origin meaning "the hospitable" or "the caring one".
Name Census estimates that about 677 living Americans carry the first name Maguire. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Maguire today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maguire births was 2000 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maguire. 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.
People living today
677
~ 1 in 506,284 Americans
Peak year
2000
63 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,361
Tracked since 1997
Census
Maguire in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 668 people with the first name Maguire, which placed it at #16,760 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
#16,760
National first-name rank
People counted
668
668 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maguire
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maguire is White at 90.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.3%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Maguire 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 Maguire at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.3% · 603
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 29
- Two or more races3.9% · 26
- Black or African American0.7% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Maguire
Maguire leans heavily male at 84.2% of total registrations, but 108 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Maguire as a male name
- Ranked #10,361 in 2023
- 7 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2000 (54 births)
Maguire as a female name
- Ranked #11,707 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maguire leans strongly male. 537 people counted with this name were male (80.4%), compared with 131 female bearers (19.6%).
Popularity
Maguire: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maguire 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 413 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
Maguire 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 Maguire during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maguires live
Origin
Meaning and history of Maguire
The name Maguire is of Irish Gaelic origin, derived from the Old Irish name Mág Uidhir, which means "the plain of the yew tree." It is a surname that has been used as a first name in more recent times.
In ancient Irish history, the Mág Uidhir were a powerful family who ruled over a territory in what is now County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The name first appears in medieval Irish annals and records, dating back to the 12th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Maguire was Donn Mór Mág Uidhir, who was the King of Fermanagh in the late 13th century. He is noted for his role in the Irish Bruce Wars, where he initially supported the Scottish King Robert the Bruce's invasion of Ireland but later switched sides to support the English.
Another notable figure with the name Maguire was Cuconnacht Mág Uidhir, who was the Lord of Fermanagh in the early 16th century. He was known for his resistance against the English Crown's attempts to assert control over Ireland during the Tudor reconquest.
In the 17th century, Conor Maguire, Baron of Enniskillen, was a significant figure in the Irish Confederate Wars. He was executed in 1645 for his role in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
Moving forward in history, Thomas Maguire (1792-1854) was an Irish Catholic priest and a prominent figure in the Temperance Movement in Ireland during the 19th century.
Finally, one of the most famous individuals with the name Maguire was Constantine Maguire (1889-1975), an Irish-born American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Representative from New York from 1923 to 1927.
While the name Maguire has its roots in Irish history and culture, it has since been adopted as a first name in various parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries with Irish diaspora populations.
People
Maguire + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maguire 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
Maguire: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maguire?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 677 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maguire 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 506,284 US residents.
Is Maguire a common name?
We classify Maguire as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 685 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maguire most popular?
The single biggest year for Maguire was 2000, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maguire is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maguire in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 668 people with the name Maguire, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,760 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 Maguire 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 Maguire?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maguire leans strongly male. 537 people counted with this name were male (80.4%), compared with 131 female bearers (19.6%). 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 Maguire?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maguire is White at 90.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.3%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Maguire most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maguire in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.3% (603 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 Maguire in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maguire a male name?
Yes, 84.2% of people registered as Maguire 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 Maguire still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maguire 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 Maguire 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 Maguire?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.