Given name & surname
Mackay
“the son of fire”
Mackay is used as a given name and a surname. One interpretation is “the son of fire.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One interpretation is “the son of fire.”
Where it comes from
Mackay is a form of McKay. McKay comes from Irish, and ultimately from Scottish Gaelic.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1991. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Mackay through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 297
- 276 boys · 21 girls
- Most popular year
- 1996
- 14 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- 0%
- Steady
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 8 in 2024. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 13 in 2012. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 336 as a first name in 2020; 9,558 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.
Mackay’s family of names
Mackay has a related form in McKay. Mackay has a related form in Mackaye. Mackay has a related form in McKaye.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
People named Mackay
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Mackay, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Maccoy
“the son of Hugh”
>99% boys
Macaulay
“the son of righteousness”
>99% boys
Maclean
“the son of John's servant”
>99% boys
Macauley
“the son of righteousness”
>99% boys
Daray
“a dark-skinned man”
>99% boys
Macgregor
“the son of Gregor”
>99% boys
Chay
“from the fairy place”
87% boys · 13% girls
Ernan
>99% boys