Mclean
Son of clan Gillean, Celtic origin.
Name Census estimates that about 355 living Americans carry the first name Mclean. It is a predominantly male name (94.3% of registrations). The average person named Mclean today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mclean births was 1998 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mclean. 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
355
~ 1 in 965,505 Americans
Peak year
1998
17 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,534
Tracked since 1923
Census
Mclean in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 464 people with the first name Mclean, which placed it at #21,757 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
#21,757
National first-name rank
People counted
464
464 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mclean
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mclean is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.1%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Mclean 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 Mclean at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.5% · 378
- Black or African American9.1% · 42
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 13
- Two or more races1.5% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Mclean
Mclean leans heavily male at 94.3% of total registrations, but 21 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mclean as a male name
- Ranked #9,534 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (16 births)
Mclean as a female name
- Ranked #16,796 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1998 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mclean on both sides of the split. Of the 460 people counted with this name, 356 were male (77.4%) and 104 were female (22.6%).
Popularity
Mclean: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mclean from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 99 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Mclean remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mclean 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 Mclean 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 Mclean
Mclean is a Scottish given name derived from the Gaelic Mac Lìomnaidh, which means "son of the tonsured one" or "son of the servant." The name has its roots in the Scottish Highlands and can be traced back to the 12th century.
The earliest recorded instance of the name dates back to 1206, when a man named Gillechrist MacLean was mentioned in a charter granted by the Lord of the Isles. This charter granted lands on the island of Mull to the MacLean clan, which was one of the most powerful clans in the Hebrides.
In the 16th century, the MacLean clan played a significant role in the Scottish Wars of Independence, supporting Robert the Bruce against the English. One of the most notable figures from this era was Sir Lachlan Mor MacLean, who fought alongside Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
Throughout the centuries, several individuals with the name Mclean have left their mark on history. Sir John McLean (1753-1820) was a British Army officer who served in the American Revolutionary War and later became the Governor of Prince Edward Island. Another notable figure was John Patterson McLean (1848-1916), an American entrepreneur and publisher who owned several newspapers, including the Washington Post.
In the 20th century, Mclean Stevenson (1927-1996) was an American actor best known for his roles in the television series M*A*S*H and Hello, Larry. Mclean Anderson (1937-2018) was a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd Premier of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988.
More recently, Mclean Karr (born 1947) is an American artist and sculptor known for his large-scale public installations, while Mclean Bowman (born 1975) is a British musician and composer who has worked on various film and television projects.
People
Mclean + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mclean 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
Mclean: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mclean?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 355 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mclean 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 965,505 US residents.
Is Mclean a common name?
We classify Mclean as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 369 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mclean most popular?
The single biggest year for Mclean was 1998, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mclean is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mclean in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 464 people with the name Mclean, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,757 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 Mclean 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 Mclean?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mclean on both sides of the split. Of the 460 people counted with this name, 356 were male (77.4%) and 104 were female (22.6%). 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 Mclean?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mclean is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.1%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Mclean most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mclean in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.5% (378 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 Mclean in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mclean a male name?
Yes, 94.3% of people registered as Mclean 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 Mclean still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mclean 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 Mclean 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 share the name Mclean?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.