McLellan
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
McLellan is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: A surname from Scottish Gaelic.
- CACanada≈1 in 12K(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 17K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 17K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 365 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 12K (inferred from the name graph)
≈37,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
New Zealand, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A surname from Scottish Gaelic.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
McLellan counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈37,000 est. | ≈1 in 37K | — | McLellan | 6 |
| US United States | — | 6,318 | 1 in 53K | 6.3K | McLellan | 365 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈3,800 est. | ≈1 in 17K | — | McLellan | 181 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈3,000 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | McLellan | 193 |
| KP North Korea | #623 | ≈2,100 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | McLellan | 3 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 17K | — | McLellan | 139 |
| NZ New Zealand | #891 | ≈410 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | McLellan | 87 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- C. M. S. McLellanb. 1865USplaywright
- Silas McLellanb. 1897CACanadian marathon runner
- Robert McLellanb. 1907GBBritish writer (1907–1985)
- Alister McLellanb. 1919NZNew Zealand mathematician and academic physicist (1919–2012)
- John McLellanb. 1928CACanadian ice hockey player and coach (1928–1979)
- David McLellanb. 1940GBBritish political scientist
- Anne McLellanb. 1950CACanadian politician
- Scott McLellanb. 1963CACanadian ice hockey player
- Todd McLellanb. 1967CACanadian ice hockey player and coach
- Zoe McLellanb. 1974USAmerican actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 19 sources across 9 countries.
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name McLellan mean, and where does it come from?
- A surname from Scottish Gaelic. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- In which country does McLellan have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 37 thousand people named McLellan in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled mclellan.
- How common is the name McLellan?
- In the United States, the national register counted 6,318 people named McLellan in 2010, about 1 in 53 thousand residents.
- How common is McLellan compared with other names?
- In North Korea, McLellan is the 623rd most common surname of 2,439 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about McLellan?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/mclellanThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “McLellan” — the 623rd most common surname in North Korea. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.