Mccauley
A masculine given name perhaps derived from Scottish Gaelic meaning "son of the bald one".
Name Census estimates that about 113 living Americans carry the first name Mccauley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Mccauley today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mccauley births was 1993 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mccauley. 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 Mccauley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
113
~ 1 in 3,033,224 Americans
Peak year
1993
16 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,498
Tracked since 1991
Census
Mccauley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 203 people with the first name Mccauley, which placed it at #38,074 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
#38,074
National first-name rank
People counted
203
203 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mccauley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mccauley is White at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.4%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Mccauley 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 Mccauley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.2% · 171
- Two or more races6.4% · 13
- Black or African American4.9% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Mccauley
Mccauley leans heavily male at 81.7% of total registrations, but 21 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mccauley as a male name
- Ranked #13,498 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (11 births)
Mccauley as a female name
- Ranked #18,886 in 2010
- 5 female births in 2010
- Peak: 1992 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mccauley on both sides of the split. Of the 203 people counted with this name, 126 were male (62.1%) and 77 were female (37.9%).
Popularity
Mccauley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mccauley 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 77 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mccauley 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 Mccauley 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 Mccauley
The given name Mccauley is an anglicized version of the Irish Gaelic name Mac Amhalghaidh, which means "son of Amhalghaidh". It is derived from the ancient Irish personal name Amhalghaidh, which is composed of the elements "am" meaning "to cut" and "gaidh" meaning "wise or skilled". The name likely originated in the 8th or 9th century in Ireland.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient chronicle of medieval Irish history. The annals mention an "Amhalghaidh mac Fiachna" in the year 857 AD, who was a king of the Uí Fiachrach Aidne, a medieval Irish kingdom located in what is now County Galway.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Mccauley or its various spellings. In the 12th century, Amhalghaidh Mac Amhalghaidh was a renowned Irish poet and historian from County Sligo. In the 16th century, Amhalghaidh Ó Cuairsge was an Irish chieftain and leader of the Uí Cuairsge clan in County Mayo.
In more recent times, Catharine Macaulay (1731-1791) was an English historian and political writer who published an influential eight-volume work called "The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick Line". James Macauley (1789-1859) was an Irish politician and judge who served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1841 to 1846.
Another notable figure was Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), an English historian, essayist, and politician who is best known for his monumental work "The History of England from the Accession of James the Second". His critical and historical essays on literature, philosophy, and politics were highly acclaimed and influential.
These examples illustrate the rich history and diverse backgrounds of individuals who have borne the name Mccauley, which has its roots in ancient Irish Gaelic culture and language.
People
Mccauley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mccauley 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
Mccauley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mccauley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 113 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mccauley 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 3,033,224 US residents.
Is Mccauley a common name?
We classify Mccauley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 115 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mccauley most popular?
The single biggest year for Mccauley was 1993, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mccauley is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mccauley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 203 people with the name Mccauley, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,074 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 Mccauley 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 Mccauley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mccauley on both sides of the split. Of the 203 people counted with this name, 126 were male (62.1%) and 77 were female (37.9%). 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 Mccauley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mccauley is White at 84.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.4%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Mccauley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mccauley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.2% (171 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 Mccauley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mccauley a male name?
Yes, 81.7% of people registered as Mccauley 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 Mccauley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mccauley 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 Mccauley 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 Mccauley?
See how many people share the name Mccauley on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.