Given name & surname · also Gaelic
Macaulay
“the son of righteousness”
Macaulay is a variant of Macauley. One interpretation is “the son of righteousness.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
Macaulay is a variant of Macauley. One interpretation is “the son of righteousness.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Macaulay comes from Scottish Gaelic, and ultimately from Old Norse.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1990. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Macaulay through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 282
- 267 boys · 15 girls
- Most popular year
- 1992
- 36 babies
- 2025
- 17
- #5,521 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +100%
- Rising fast
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 17 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 5,521 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for boys was 36 in 1992. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 263 as a first name in 2020; 2,282 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Macaulay’s family of names
Macaulay has a related form in Macauley.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
People named Macaulay
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Macaulay, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
McCauley
“the son of righteousness”
>99% boys
Kaelan
“a mighty warrior”
85% boys · 15% girls
Jostein
“horse” · “stone”
>99% boys
Conor
“lover of hounds” · “a wolf-lover”
>99% boys
Vang
“field”
97% boys · 3% girls
Stian
“wanderer” · “a voyager; one who is swift”
>99% boys
Mackinnon
“the son of the fair one”
>99% boys
Cowan
“from the hollow near the hill; one of twins”
>99% boys