Macoy
Masculine · “Son of Aodh”
Macoy is McCoy respelled, and McCoy is an Irish and Scottish surname built on Aodh, the fire god. It is also, in American English, a byword for authenticity — the real McCoy — and nobody agrees where that phrase came from.
How old is the name Macoy?
Macoy first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Macoy is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Macoy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Macoy most popular?
Macoy peaked in 2020, reaching #3136 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 2,472 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aodh to Macoy
The story of Macoy
Mac Aodha is one of the commonest Gaelic surname formations, anglicized as McCoy, McKay, McHugh, Magee and Hughes depending on the region and the clerk. The Ulster Scots carried it to Appalachia, where the Hatfield-McCoy feud of the 1880s made it permanently famous. The phrase the real McCoy is variously credited to a Scotch whisky, a boxer, an inventor and a Prohibition rum-runner, and its origin is genuinely unsettled. As a given name Macoy is very recent, peaking in 2020, in the general fashion for surname names with the capitals smoothed out.
Meaning
Son of Aodh, the fire
From Irish Mac Aodha, son of Aodh — the name of a Celtic fire deity and the Old Irish word for fire. The reading is settled, and the same Aodh lies behind Hughes, Keegan and McKay. The Macoy spelling is an American respelling that removes the capital in the middle; the phrase the real McCoy has at least four competing origin stories and none is established.
How the name formed
- Aodh
- Mac Aodha
- McCoy
- Macoy
Related forms: Mac Aodha · McCoy · MacAoidh
Pronouncing Macoy
muh-KOY
Two syllables, stress on the second. Removing the internal capital changes nothing in speech, though it makes the name look less like a surname.
Nicknames for Macoy
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
- 1996
- Most boys named
- 202036 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3136reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +14.3%16 in 2025, from 14
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.
Macoy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mac Aodha in Irish — related form
- McCoy in English — spelling variant
- MacAoidh in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Macoys among us
people named Macoy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Macoy
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 Hilburn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Macoy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hilburn climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hilburn's path sketches the road Macoy is walking now.
Macoy 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
Macoy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Macoy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Irish source is genuine and the fire element is a good one.
- Coy and Mac both work as short forms.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- McCoy is the standard spelling and will be written for it.
- The phrase the real McCoy is an unavoidable association.
- The back half is the word coy, which has its own meaning.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Macoy to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Macoy? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Macoy
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Macoys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Macoy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Macoy in 2025?
- Macoy ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Macoy?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Macoy — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Macoy with classmates?
- Macoy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Macoy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Macoy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Macoy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle