Find out how popular the last name McVey is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named McVey.

McVey, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the McVey surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of McVey in America

McVey is the 4018th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The McVey surname appeared 8,848 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 3 people would have the surname McVey.

We can also compare 2010 data for McVey to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name McVey

The surname MCVEY is believed to have originated in Ireland, tracing its roots back to the early 17th century. It is thought to be a variant of the more common Irish surname McVeigh, derived from the Gaelic name Mac Bheatha, meaning "son of Bheatha."

MCVEY is a patronymic surname, indicating that the name was originally formed by adding the prefix "Mac" (meaning "son of") to the personal name Bheatha. This practice of creating surnames from a father's given name was common in Ireland and Scotland during the medieval period.

Some of the earliest recorded instances of the MCVEY surname can be found in Irish census records from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The name was particularly prevalent in County Armagh and County Tyrone in Ulster, where many families bearing the name resided.

One notable historical figure with the surname MCVEY was John McVey, an Irish-born soldier who served in the American Revolutionary War. Born in County Armagh around 1755, McVey fought alongside the Continental Army and was present at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, which effectively ended the war.

Another prominent individual with the MCVEY surname was James McVey, a Scottish-born railway engineer who lived from 1815 to 1896. He played a crucial role in the construction of several major railway lines in Scotland and England during the 19th century, including the Glasgow and South Western Railway.

In the United States, one of the earliest recorded instances of the MCVEY surname can be found in the marriage records of Baltimore, Maryland, where a John McVey married Mary Dunn in 1818. This suggests that Irish immigrants bearing the MCVEY name had already begun settling in America by the early 19th century.

Another notable American with the MCVEY surname was Patrick McVey, a lawyer and politician from Pennsylvania who served as a United States Congressman from 1873 to 1875. He was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1828 and later immigrated to the United States.

In more recent history, one of the most famous individuals with the MCVEY surname was Edna McVey, an American educator and psychologist who lived from 1888 to 1976. She was a pioneer in the field of child psychology and served as the director of the famous Gesell Institute of Child Development in New Haven, Connecticut.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name McVey

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname McVey.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for McVey was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of McVey has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name McVey was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of McVey, please contact us.

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