Given name & surname · also Gaelic
Mcclure
“son of the dun lad”
McClure is a surname from Scottish Gaelic, ultimately from Irish.
Meaning & origin
What it means
McClure goes back to Irish Mac Giolla Uidhir, meaning “son of the dun lad.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
McClure comes from Scottish Gaelic, and ultimately from Irish.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Scottish Gaelic Mac Gille Uidhir, from Irish Mac Giolla Uidhir (“son of the dun lad”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1917. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Mcclure through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 10
- 10 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1917
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1925. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 45,586 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.
Mcclure’s family of names
In English usage, Mcclure as a surname has a related form in MCLURE.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Mcclure, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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“the son of Henry”
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