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    The surname McAlister

    A Scottish Gaelic surname, carried by 11,665 people in the United States.

    4 syllables Soundex M242

    McAlister: #3,078 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon McAlister #3,078, 11,665 people McAlister: #3,078 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez McAlister #3,078, 11,665 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). McAlister is more common than 98.1% of them.

    Origin

    Scottish Gaelic origin

    Variant of McAllister.

    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 11,665 people named McAlister in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 26,468 Americans. That is up 2.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 11,433.

    #3,078
    rank among US surnames
    11,665
    people in 2010
    4.0
    per 100,000 Americans
    +2%
    change since 2000 (was #2,883)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #3,069Soares11,69426,402
    #3,070Godoy11,69026,411
    #3,071Carl11,68926,413
    #3,072Hildebrand11,68726,418
    #3,073Merino11,68426,425
    #3,074Rawls11,67926,436
    #3,075Rao11,67226,452

    Who is named McAlister

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

    83% of people named McAlister identified as white (not Hispanic), 12% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

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

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous McAlisters

    2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Jim McAlister
      American soccer player-coach, born 1957
    • Peter McAlister
      Australian cricketer (1869-1938)

    Notable McAlisters come mostly from the United States (1) and Australia (1).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like McAlister

    McAlister has the Soundex code M242, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code M242.

    Other Scottish Gaelic surnames

    All 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname McAlister come from?
    Variant of McAllister.
    How common is the surname McAlister?
    11,665 people in the United States had the surname McAlister in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 26,468 Americans. It ranked 3,078th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname McAlister?
    In the 2010 Census, 83% of people named McAlister identified as white (not Hispanic), and 12% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named McAlister?
    Jim McAlister, American soccer player-coach, followed by Peter McAlister.
    Where is the surname McAlister most common?
    Wikidata records people named McAlister in the United States and Australia.
    Is the surname McAlister getting more or less common?
    More common. 11,433 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 11,665 in 2010, up 2.0%.