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Name Lineage

    The surname Maclean

    A Scottish Gaelic occupational surname, carried by 7,504 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex M245

    Maclean: #4,726 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Maclean #4,726, 7,504 people Maclean: #4,726 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Maclean #4,726, 7,504 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Maclean is more common than 97.1% of them.

    Origin

    Scottish Gaelic origin

    From Scottish Gaelic MacGilleEathain, patronymic form of a personal name meaning "servant of (Saint) John".

    Maclean is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

    One of 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 7,504 people named Maclean in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 41,144 Americans. That is up 5.3% since 2000, when the Census counted 7,127.

    #4,726
    rank among US surnames
    7,504
    people in 2010
    2.5
    per 100,000 Americans
    +5.3%
    change since 2000 (was #4,566)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #4,722Toomey7,51041,111
    #4,723Ault7,50941,117
    #4,724Parikh7,50641,133
    #4,726Lei7,50441,144

    Who is named Maclean

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    93% of people named Maclean identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.0% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.8% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 93%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.0%
    • Two or more races 1.8%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.8%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 0.8%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.2%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Macleans

    9 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Donald Maclean
      British diplomat and spy (1913–1983)
    • Craig MacLean
      British cyclist, born 1971
    • Paul D. MacLean
      American neuroscientist (1913–2007)
    • Katherine MacLean
      American science fiction author (1925-2019)
    • Norman Maclean
      American author and scholar (1902–1990)
    • Don MacLean
      American basketball player (born 1970)
    • Bryan MacLean
      American musician (1946–1998)
    • Douglas MacLean
      American actor (1890–1967)
    • Rachel Maclean
      British Conservative politician, born 1965

    Notable Macleans come mostly from the United States (6), the United Kingdom (2) and the Soviet Union (1).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Variant spellings

    Surnames that sound like Maclean

    Maclean has the Soundex code M245, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code M245.

    Other Scottish Gaelic surnames

    All 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Maclean come from?
    From Scottish Gaelic MacGilleEathain, patronymic form of a personal name meaning "servant of (Saint) John".
    How common is the surname Maclean?
    7,504 people in the United States had the surname Maclean in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 41,144 Americans. It ranked 4,726th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Maclean?
    In the 2010 Census, 93% of people named Maclean identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.0% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
    Who is the most famous person named Maclean?
    Donald Maclean, British diplomat and spy (1913–1983), followed by Craig MacLean.
    Where is the surname Maclean most common?
    Wikidata records people named Maclean in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.
    What type of surname is Maclean?
    Maclean is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
    Is the surname Maclean getting more or less common?
    More common. 7,127 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 7,504 in 2010, up 5.3%.
    What are other spellings of Maclean?
    Mclean, Malean, Lean, Mcclean, Macclean and Clean.