Mccall
Feminine · “son of the battle chief”
Mccall is given to both — 1,137 girls and 134 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
McCall is a battle chief's son. The Irish and Scottish Mac Cathmhaoil joins the word for a battle to one for a chief or champion, and English clerks ground the whole thing down to two syllables. It became an American girls' name in the nineteen-eighties, in the general movement of Scottish and Irish surnames to the front.
How old is the name Mccall?
Mccall first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Mccall alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 1,100 people named Mccall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mccall most popular?
Mccall peaked in 1993, reaching #2152 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 2,835 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Where it comes from
From Mac Cathmhaoil to Mccall
The story of Mccall
Gaelic patronymics carried a great deal of information and lost most of it in English spelling: Mac Cathmhaoil is four syllables in Irish and two in English, and the battle inside it disappears entirely. The surname belongs to Ulster and to western Scotland and crossed to America in large numbers. Surname-names for girls became a strong American fashion in the nineteen-eighties, and McCall arrived with McKenna, McKinley and Mackenzie in the same years.
Meaningscholars disagree
son of the battle chief
Mac Cathmhaoil, from cath, a battle, and mhaol, a chief or a devotee, is the reading usually given and produced McCall, MacCall and Campbell-adjacent forms. A second account derives some families from Mac Cathail, son of Cathal, a personal name meaning battle-ruler. Both are documented and different families carry each.
How the name formed
- Mac Cathmhaoil
- McCall
Related forms: Mac Cathmhaoil · MacCall
Pronouncing Mccall
muh-KAWL
Two syllables with the stress at the end, the last rhyming with tall. There is no other reading.
Nicknames for Mccall
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
- 1977
- Most girls named
- 199362 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2152reached in 1993
- Change vs 2024
- +4.0%26 in 2025, from 25
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.
Mccall in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mac Cathmhaoil in Irish — related form
- MacCall in Scottish Gaelic — same name
Mccalls among us
people named Mccall are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Mccall
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 Charon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mccall's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Charon climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Charon's path sketches the road Mccall is walking now.
Mccall 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 Mccall is headed
Mccall looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 31% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Mccall beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mccall in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Callie and Mac are ready short forms with quite different registers.
- It carries a documented Gaelic patronymic with a real meaning behind it.
- The sound is entirely familiar in English-speaking countries.
- It is a well-known surname, so it is sometimes read as a last name written first.
- McCall, Mccall and MacCall differ in capitalization, and forms rarely keep it.
- The Gaelic meaning is invisible without explanation.
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Mccall
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mccalls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Mccall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mccall in 2025?
- Mccall ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mccall?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Mccall — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mccall with classmates?
- Mccall will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mccall
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Embry#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mccall? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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