Mcarthur
Masculine · “son of Arthur”
This is a surname given whole, and the moment it was given is not in any doubt. The name climbs through the years when one American general was the most photographed man in the Pacific, and it peaks at the exact point when his name was on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
How old is the name Mcarthur?
Mcarthur first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Mcarthur alive today was born around 1953, making them about 72 years old. About 1,500 people named Mcarthur are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mcarthur most popular?
Mcarthur peaked in 1942, reaching #357 nationally. See the whole 1942 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From MacArthur to Mcarthur
The story of Mcarthur
The clan behind the surname has a reputation for age that it has never been shy about. A Gaelic saying, quoted in various forms for centuries, holds that there is nothing older except the hills, the MacArthurs and the devil. The clan claimed descent older than the Campbells, who eventually overshadowed them entirely, and the proverb is generally read as a piece of pride that outlived the power it was boasting about. That is a common shape for Highland history: the families with the loudest claims to antiquity are frequently the ones who lost. It also means the name arrives carrying a joke about its own venerability, which most people who use it have never heard.
Meaning
son of Arthur
A Gaelic patronymic surname. The Arthur inside it is the personal name, whose own origin is disputed and probably always will be. The prefix is straightforward and its sense has never been in question.
How the name formed
- MacArthur
- McArthur
- Mcarthur
Related forms: MacArtair
Pronouncing Mcarthur
muk-AR-thur
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The prefix is unstressed and reduces to almost nothing, which is why it disappears so easily in writing.
Nicknames for Mcarthur
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 1943173 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #357reached in 1942
- Change vs 2015
- 0.0%5 in 2023, from 5
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.
Mcarthur in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- MacArtair in Scottish Gaelic — same name
Mcarthurs among us
people named Mcarthur are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Mcarthur sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Arthur and Mac are both ready short forms with entirely different characters.
- It is unmistakable and needs no repeating once heard.
- It carries a specific and identifiable history rather than a vague one.
- The general is the association and it is a large one to hand to a child.
- MacArthur and McArthur are both standard, so the capital letters will be argued over.
- It is firmly of the middle of the last century and reads that way.
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Mcarthur
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Mcarthurs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Mcarthur are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mcarthur in 2025?
- Mcarthur is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Mcarthur with classmates?
- Mcarthur will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mcarthur? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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