Macarthur
Masculine
The name spikes in 1942, and the reason is not subtle. MacArthur left the Philippines in March of that year saying he would return, and American parents named their sons after him within months.
How old is the name Macarthur?
Macarthur first appears in US birth records in 1941 — 84 years ago. The typical Macarthur alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 1,000 people named Macarthur are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Macarthur most popular?
Macarthur peaked in 1942, reaching #512 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,183 places below that high. See the whole 1942 chart.
Where it comes from
From Arthur to Macarthur
The story of Macarthur
Giving a child a general's surname is an old American habit, and the data records it precisely: Sherman, Sheridan, Dewey, Pershing and Eisenhower all appear on the curve in the years of their fame. MacArthur is one of the sharpest. Ordered out of the Philippines in March 1942 as the position collapsed, he made a statement on arriving in Australia that was printed everywhere, and the name appears in the birth records of 1942 and 1943 in numbers it never reached before or since. What such spikes measure is not approval exactly, but visibility of a particular kind: the name has to be pronounceable, unusual enough to be recognizable, and attached to a single event. The Arthur underneath it has resisted etymology for fifteen hundred years.
Meaningnot established
Not established
MacArthur is a Scottish clan surname meaning son of Arthur. Arthur's own origin is genuinely unsettled: derivations from the Roman family name Artorius and from a Celtic word for a bear have both been argued and neither is established. The American peak of the given name is 1942.
How the name formed
- Arthur
- MacArthur
- Macarthur
Related forms: MacArtair · McArthur
Pronouncing Macarthur
muh-KAR-thur
Three syllables, stress on the second. The Mac is unstressed and reduces to a schwa in ordinary speech.
Nicknames for Macarthur
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
- 1941
- Most boys named
- 194360 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #512reached in 1942
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2025, from 8
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.
Macarthur in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- MacArtair in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- McArthur in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Macarthurs among us
people named Macarthur are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Macarthur
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 Durward test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Macarthur's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Durward climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Durward's path sketches the road Macarthur is walking now.
Macarthur 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
Macarthur beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Macarthur in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mac and Art are two short forms in very different styles.
- Arthur sits inside it as a complete name.
- Three syllables with a strong central stress.
- The association with one general is total.
- The 1942 peak dates it to a single year.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
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What they receive
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Macarthur
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Macarthurs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Macarthur are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Macarthur in 2025?
- Macarthur ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Macarthur?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Macarthur — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Macarthur with classmates?
- Macarthur will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Macarthur
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Macarthur? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Macarthur and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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