Macy
Feminine · “from a French place-name”
Macy is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 32,749 girls against 555 boys since 1880. See Macy as a boy name
Macy is a Norman surname that became a girl's name, bright and quick, with two syllables and a long a. For many Americans it is first the name of a department store with a red star and a parade.
How old is the name Macy?
Macy first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Macy alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 31,500 people named Macy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Macy most popular?
Macy peaked in 2003, reaching #219 nationally. Today it ranks #718, 499 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maccius to Macy
The story of Macy
Rowland Hussey Macy went to sea on a Nantucket whaler as a young man, and the company says the red star of its logo came from a tattoo he got then. After several failed stores he opened one in New York that grew into the largest in the world. His store's first Thanksgiving parade borrowed animals from the Central Park Zoo before it switched to giant balloons. As a first name, Macy has gone almost entirely to girls, with a very few boys.
Meaningscholars disagree
from a French place-name, the estate of Maccius
Macy is usually traced to Massy or Macey, French place-names from the Latin personal name Maccius. Other origins for the surname have been suggested.
How the name formed
- Maccius
- Massy
- Macy
Related forms: Massy
Pronouncing Macy
MAY-see
Two syllables, stressed on the first.
Nicknames for Macy
Limited
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 20031,483 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #219reached in 2003
- Change vs 2022
- −4.4%390 in 2025, from 408
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.
Macy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Massy in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Macys among us
people named Macy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,121 born in 2025 was named Macy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Macy
- #718
- Macy on the 2025 chart
- #388
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Macy went to 390 girls in 2025, but Maci, Mazi and Mazy are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 768, which makes it the 388th most-given girls’ name of the year — 330 places above the chart.
- Macy390
- Maci352
- Mazi15
- Mazy11
About 1 girl in 2,093 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,121 for Macy itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Therese test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Macy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Therese climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Therese's path sketches the road Macy is walking now.
Macy 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 Macy is headed
Macy 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.
Macy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Macy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is bright, friendly and easy to spell.
- It is familiar without being among the most common names.
- Nearly everyone will think of the department store and its parade.
- A very few boys have been given it; for them it will read as a girl's name everywhere.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Macy
Feminine · #718 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Macys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 31,500 people named Macy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Macy?
- Macy is the most-used spelling in US records — 390 of the 768 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Maci, Mazi and Mazy.
- How popular is the name Macy in 2025?
- Macy ranks #718 among US girl names in 2025, with 390 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Macy?
- About 1 in every 4,121 US girls born in 2025 was named Macy — 390 in all.
- Will my child share the name Macy with classmates?
- Macy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Macy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ila#718 · Karsyn#718 · Remy#718 · Lennox#716 · Dayana#716 · Sol#722 · Samira#723 · Mckinley#712
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Macy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Macy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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