McNair
surname · Latin script
Meaning: From Scottish, Irish and Gaelic forms meaning 'son of sallow John', 'son of the heir', or 'son of the steward'
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/məkˈnɛɹ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
McNair is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 19K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 20K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 21K
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
- 418 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 14K (inferred from the name graph)
≈36,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Singapore, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Scottish, Irish and Gaelic forms meaning 'son of sallow John', 'son of the heir', or 'son of the steward'.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
McNair 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 | ≈36,000 est. | ≈1 in 39K | — | McNair | 4 |
| US United States | 16,595 | 1 in 20K | 17K | McNair | 418 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈3,500 est. | ≈1 in 19K | — | McNair | 163 |
| ID Indonesia | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 162K | — | McNair | 6 |
| CA Canada | ≈1,600 est. | ≈1 in 24K | — | McNair | 137 |
| AU Australia | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 21K | — | McNair | 114 |
| SG Singapore | ≈450 est. | ≈1 in 14K | — | McNair | 8 |
| IE Ireland | ≈210 est. | ≈1 in 24K | — | McNair | 24 |
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).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
McNair is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
1. Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac lain Uidhir ‘son of sallow John’. This form is associated mainly with Ross-shire. 2. Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Oighre ‘son of the heir’. This form is associated mainly with Perthshire. 3. Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Mhaoir ‘son of the steward or keeper’. The same name in Ireland was commonly Anglicized as Weir.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, A surname from Scottish Gaelic.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Alexander McNairb. 1775USAmerican politician (1775–1826)
- Winifred McNairb. 1877GBEnglish tennis player (1877–1954)
- Lesley J. McNairb. 1883USrecipient of the Purple Heart medal (1883-1944)
- Arnold McNair, 1st Baron McNairb. 1885GBBritish judge (1885-1975)
- Barbara McNairb. 1934USAmerican singer and theater, television and film actress (1934–2007)
- Ronald McNairb. 1950USAmerican physicist, astronaut (1950-1986)
- Sylvia McNairb. 1956USAmerican opera singer, soprano
- Steve McNairb. 1973USAmerican football player (1973–2009)
- Gabrial McNairb. 1973USAmerican musician
- Paddy McNairb. 1995GBNorthern Irish association football player (born 1995)
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 19 sources across 9 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 17K | #2,191 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 16K | #2,223 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 15K | #2,179 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 6
- 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 given-name tokens
- 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 McNair mean, and where does it come from?
- From Scottish, Irish and Gaelic forms meaning 'son of sallow John', 'son of the heir', or 'son of the steward'. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- How do you pronounce McNair?
- A machine transcription gives /məkˈnɛɹ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does McNair have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 36 thousand people named McNair in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled mcnair.
- How common is the name McNair?
- In the United States, the national register counted 16,595 people named McNair in 2010, about 1 in 20 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about McNair?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/mcnairThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
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, “McNair”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.