Cormac
Masculine · “traditionally read as "son of Corb”
Cormac has been written down in Ireland since the early medieval period, when it belonged to kings and to a bishop of Cashel whose glossary of Irish words scholars still read. It is two clean syllables with the weight up front, the kind of name that carries across a playground without being shouted. It arrived in American records only in the last few generations, and it has held its place quietly ever since.
How old is the name Cormac?
Cormac first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Cormac is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,700 people named Cormac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cormac most popular?
Cormac peaked in 2014, reaching #1032 nationally. Today it ranks #1297, 265 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Cormac appears on these lists:
Works in Irish families too:
Where it comes from
From Corbmac to Cormac
The story of Cormac
Cormac is Irish, from the Old Irish Corbmac, and it belongs to the oldest layer of recorded names on the island. It was borne by Cormac mac Cuilennáin, the king-bishop of Cashel who died in 908 and whose name is attached to Sanas Cormaic, an early glossary of the Irish language, and again by the Cormac Mac Cárthaigh whose twelfth-century chapel still stands on the Rock of Cashel. It also lives on as a surname, in Cormack and in Mac Cormaic, anglicized as McCormack and MacCormick. Under English rule the name was often replaced on paper with Charles or Cornelius, and it came back into ordinary use with the twentieth-century revival of Irish given names — the same wave that carried it to the United States.
Meaningscholars disagree
traditionally read as "son of Corb" — the element corb is variously read as chariot, raven, or defilement
The second part, mac, is uncontested: it is the Irish word for son, and the oldest spelling is Corbmac. The first element is where scholars part ways. Older glossaries connect corb to a chariot, which produced the popular gloss "charioteer"; others read it as raven, and some as a word for defilement or a personal name now lost. No single reading has won out.
How the name formed
- Corbmac
- Cormac
- Cormag
- Cormack
Related forms: Cormac · Cormag · Cormack · Corbmac
Pronouncing Cormac
KOR-mak
Stress on the first syllable. In Ireland the second syllable is often lighter, closer to KOR-muk. Both are correct and neither needs explaining twice.
Nicknames for Cormac
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1956
- Most boys named
- 2014196 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1032reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- −4.5%150 in 2025, from 157
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cormac in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cormac in Irish — same name
- Cormag in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Cormack in English — spelling variant
- Corbmac in Old Irish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Illinois, California.
Cormacs among us
people named Cormac are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 11,387 born in 2025 was named Cormac
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Darel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cormac's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darel climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darel's path sketches the road Cormac is walking now.
Cormac sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Cormac is headed
Cormac should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Cormac beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cormac in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A continuous written record in Ireland from the early medieval period to now — over a thousand years of the same two syllables.
- Reads phonetically for English speakers: the letters do exactly what they look like they do.
- Recognizable across the Irish, Scottish Gaelic and English-speaking worlds, and familiar as the surname Cormack or McCormack.
- Short and front-stressed, which makes it easy to call and easy to hear at a distance.
- Expect to spell it. Cormack, Cormick and Cormic are all real spellings of related names, so a written double-check will be part of the routine.
- Outside families with Irish connections, many people will be meeting the name for the first time, which means the polite repeat — "Cormac, like the Irish kings" — becomes a familiar exchange.
- In the United States the name reads strongly Irish, which some families want and others would rather not foreground. Worth a moment's thought about the surname it will sit beside.
- A child with this name is unlikely to share it with a classmate. That suits some children and takes a little getting used to for others.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Cormac to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cormac
Masculine · #1297 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cormacs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,700 people named Cormac are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cormac in 2025?
- Cormac ranks #1297 among US boy names in 2025, with 150 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cormac?
- About 1 in every 11,387 US boys born in 2025 was named Cormac — 150 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cormac with classmates?
- Cormac will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cormac
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kallen#1297 · Faris#1297 · Knowledge#1297 · Kaizer#1297 · Kolsen#1297 · Cartier#1297 · Harris#1297 · Asiah#1290
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cormac? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cormac and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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