Mcneil
A Scottish surname meaning "champion" or "victory".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Mcneil. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mcneil today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mcneil births was 1930 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mcneil. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Mcneil. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1930
6 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
1993 SSA rank
#9,664
Tracked since 1914
Popularity
Mcneil: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mcneil from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 11 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Mcneil remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mcneil 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 Mcneil 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 Mcneil
The name Mcneil is a Scottish surname that has been adopted as a given name. It originated in the Highlands of Scotland and is derived from the Gaelic phrase "mac Nèill," meaning "son of Neil." The name Neil itself is believed to come from the Old Irish name "Niall," which may have originated from the Latin name "Nigellus," meaning "dark-complexioned."
The earliest known record of the name Mcneil dates back to the 12th century, when it was used as a surname by several influential families in the Scottish Highlands. One of the most notable bearers of the name was Niall Mor MacNeil, a powerful chief of the MacNeil clan who lived in the late 13th century.
Throughout history, the name Mcneil has been associated with various historical figures and events. In the 16th century, Hector Mcneil was a prominent Scottish scholar and poet who wrote extensively in Gaelic and Latin. Another notable figure was Sir John Mcneil (1795-1872), a British army officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars and later became a colonial administrator in British India.
In the 19th century, John Mcneil (1826-1890) was a Scottish-born businessman and politician who served as a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Another bearer of the name was William Mcneil (1858-1929), an American engineer and inventor best known for developing the modern concrete mixer.
More recently, Robert Mcneil (1918-2016) was a Canadian-American journalist and television personality who co-founded the PBS news program "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour." In the field of sports, Kevin Mcneil (born 1963) was an American track and field athlete who won gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
While the name Mcneil has Scottish origins, it has been adopted by families from various backgrounds around the world, with bearers of the name making significant contributions in various fields, including literature, politics, engineering, and athletics.
People
Mcneil + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mcneil 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
Mcneil: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mcneil?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mcneil 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 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Mcneil a common name?
We classify Mcneil as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 53 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mcneil most popular?
The single biggest year for Mcneil was 1930, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mcneil is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Mcneil a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mcneil 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.
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.