Given name & surname · also Gaelic
Mccartney
“son of Artan”
McCartney is a surname from Scottish Gaelic (ultimately Old Irish).
Meaning & origin
What it means
McCartney goes back to Scottish Gaelic Mac Artaine, meaning “son of Artan.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
McCartney comes from Scottish Gaelic, and ultimately from Old Irish.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Scottish Gaelic Mac Artaine (“son of Artan”), from Old Irish art (“bear”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1995. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Mccartney through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 444
- 124 boys · 320 girls
- Most popular year
- 2008
- 31 babies
- 2025
- 12
- #12,731 for girls · #13,245 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −26%
- Easing
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 7 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 12,731 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for girls was 23 in 2008. It also appeared in 5 birth records for boys in 2025. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 433 as a first name in 2020; 12,745 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.
Mccartney’s family of names
In English usage, Mccartney as a surname has a related form in MACARTNEY. In English usage, Mccartney as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Greek form ΜακΚάρτνεϋ. In English usage, Mccartney as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Russian form Маккартни.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Mccartney has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Irish roots to each of them.
3 related names in 4 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 3
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Mccartney
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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