# McAlister (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/mcalister/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Scottish Gaelic.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Scottish Gaelic |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 11,665 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,078 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 26,468 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.0% (11,433 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Variant of McAllister.

## Who carries it

Share of people named McAlister in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 83% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 12% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 1.9% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named McAlister in the United States and Australia.

## People named McAlister

- Jim McAlister, American soccer player-coach
- Peter McAlister, Australian cricketer (1869-1938)

## Similar surnames

McAllister, McLester, McCallister, McAlexander, McCalister, McCollister, McAleese, McLaughlin, McCullough, Michaels, McCloskey, McCulloch.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.