Macy
- Pronunciation
- [Ma-cy]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Derived From Medieval Male Form Of Matthew.
- Origin
- French
About the Name Macy
Macy descends from the Old French surname Macy, possibly derived from the Old French macy meaning "weapon" (a medieval ceremonial mace) or from a feminine form of names like Matthew (see separate entry on Maci). The Macy spelling is essentially a 19th-century American invention.
The name's overwhelming modern American cultural anchor is the iconic American department-store chain Macy's (using Macy as a surname, founded 1858 in New York City by Rowland Hussey Macy, anchoring the Macy surname in American cultural memory through over a century-and-a-half of retail history). The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (since 1924) and Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks (since 1976) have continuously anchored the Macy name in American holiday culture.
The various spellings (Macy, Maci, Macie, Maicy) are tracked separately by SSA. Notable bearers include American actress Macy Gray (Natalie Renée McIntyre, born 1967, the iconic American singer whose 1999 song "I Try" made her one of the foundational figures of late-1990s American R&B); the contemporary American filmmaker William H. Macy (using Macy as a surname); and the contemporary American singer Macy Schmidt. Macy's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 1995 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 300 since. The name has been used predominantly for girls. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the in-built Macy's department-store American cultural anchor, the popular two-syllable -y ending family (Macy, Lucy, Daisy, Maggie), and the modern visual presence. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to invented modern American names. Common nicknames are scarce since Macy is itself a nickname-shape — Mac (the dominant short form, casual and warm) and the rare Cici each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Macy (the historical American spelling), Maci, Macie, Macey, and Maicy have their own SSA tracking. International variants are minimal since the name's first-name use is essentially American.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Macy
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Macy by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2003 with 1,483 girls named Macy (girl rank #219 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #720 for girls (390 US births). That's 501 places below its 2003 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Macy Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Macy the strongest states are South Dakota, North Dakota, West Virginia.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Dakota | #190 | 32 |
| 2 | North Dakota | #191 | 25 |
| 3 | West Virginia | #276 | 30 |
| 4 | Nebraska | #279 | 70 |
| 5 | Iowa | #293 | 116 |
| 6 | Minnesota | #321 | 168 |
| 7 | Wisconsin | #350 | 150 |
| 8 | Idaho | #360 | 24 |
| 9 | Kentucky | #377 | 128 |
| 10 | Kansas | #413 | 75 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #957 | 166 |
| 2 | Virginia | #876 | 60 |
| 3 | Maryland | #826 | 45 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | #825 | 18 |
| 5 | Florida | #822 | 138 |
| 6 | Texas | #783 | 324 |
| 7 | Georgia | #739 | 134 |
| 8 | Illinois | #694 | 143 |
| 9 | Arizona | #657 | 82 |
| 10 | Colorado | #639 | 71 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Macy in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Macy?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Macy to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Macy against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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