Mccoy
An Irish surname originally meaning "son of the master builder".
Name Census estimates that about 3,844 living Americans carry the first name Mccoy. It is a predominantly male name (97.7% of registrations). The average person named Mccoy today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mccoy births was 2021 (303 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mccoy. 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 Mccoy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mccoy is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 100 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Mccoy is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.8K
~ 1 in 89,166 Americans
Peak year
2021
303 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#910
Tracked since 1905
Census
Mccoy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,437 people with the first name Mccoy, which placed it at #6,551 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
#6,551
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,437 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mccoy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mccoy is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Mccoy 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 Mccoy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.7% · 1,943
- Black or African American11.2% · 272
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 98
- Two or more races3.4% · 84
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 18
Gender
Gender distribution for Mccoy
Mccoy leans heavily male at 97.7% of total registrations, but 100 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mccoy as a male name
- Ranked #910 in 2024
- 256 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (292 births)
Mccoy as a female name
- Ranked #10,768 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mccoy leans strongly male. 2,330 people counted with this name were male (95.5%), compared with 110 female bearers (4.5%).
Popularity
Mccoy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mccoy from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,612 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mccoy 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 Mccoy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mccoys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. Utah, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Mccoy, while Wyoming, Arkansas, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 64 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mccoy
The given name Mccoy has its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language and culture. It is derived from the Gaelic words "mac" meaning "son of" and "cuaidh" meaning "stranger" or "wanderer." The name emerged in the Scottish Highlands during the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mccoy can be found in the Chronicles of Melrose Abbey, a historical text written in the late 13th century. It mentions a man named Gillecryst McCoy, who was a member of the clan McQuaid (or McWade) in the Scottish Borders region.
The name gained prominence in the 16th century, when a man named Cormac McCoy was noted for his bravery and leadership during the Scottish Reformation. He fought alongside the Protestant forces against the Catholic Church and was instrumental in the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.
In the 17th century, a famous bearer of the name was Dermot McCoy, an Irish soldier who fought in the Nine Years' War (1594-1603) and the Irish Confederate Wars (1641-1653). He was known for his military prowess and loyalty to the Irish cause against English rule.
Another notable figure was Archibald McCoy, a Scottish Jacobite soldier born in 1685. He fought for the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the Jacobite Risings of the early 18th century, including the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715.
In the 19th century, the name Mccoy gained recognition in the United States due to the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud, a long-standing conflict between two families in West Virginia and Kentucky. One of the key figures in this feud was Randolph McCoy (1825-1914), whose role in the conflict became a part of American folklore.
These examples illustrate the rich history and cultural significance of the given name Mccoy, which has its roots in the Scottish Gaelic language and has been borne by notable individuals throughout history, particularly those associated with military and political events.
People
Mccoy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mccoy 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
Mccoy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mccoy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,844 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mccoy 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 89,166 US residents.
Is Mccoy a common name?
We classify Mccoy as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,357 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mccoy most popular?
The single biggest year for Mccoy was 2021, when 303 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mccoy is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mccoy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,437 people with the name Mccoy, or 0.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,551 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 Mccoy 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 Mccoy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mccoy leans strongly male. 2,330 people counted with this name were male (95.5%), compared with 110 female bearers (4.5%). 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 Mccoy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mccoy is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Mccoy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mccoy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.7% (1,943 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 Mccoy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mccoy a male name?
Yes, 97.7% of people registered as Mccoy 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 Mccoy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mccoy 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 Mccoy 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 Americans are named Mccoy?
See how many Americans are named Mccoy on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.