McCoy
A Scottish and Irish surname usually understood as a patronymic from a Gaelic personal name meaning “fire” or possibly from a “son of Hugh” form in some spellings.
The #278 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 2,788 Americans shares it.
Etymology
McCoy is an anglicized surname in the Mac/Mc family, meaning “son of” a Gaelic personal name. In older scholarship it is often linked to Gaelic forms built on names with the element cuithe or caomh, but the exact derivation is not always settled and some historical spellings were merged under the same English form. In practice, McCoy is usually treated as a patronymic surname from Gaelic roots rather than a name with one single universally agreed source.
History
The surname is found in both Irish and Scottish contexts, and the spelling McCoy reflects the common English rendering of several Gaelic surnames that sounded similar to record-keepers. In the United States it became widespread through Irish and Scots-Irish immigration, and the form is now especially familiar in North America. Historical surname dictionaries also place it among the Mc- names in regional lists, showing that it was established in scholarly reference work by the 19th century.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
McCoy is one of those surnames that can hide more than one Gaelic original, which is why older genealogical records sometimes treat similar Mc- names as easy to confuse.
From the historical record
“triAC Ao-OA, MacKay, MacKey, MacKee, MacCoy, MacQuay, MacQuey, MacHay, MacHugh, Aison, Eason ; Hughes; Hueson, Hewson, etc. rriAC Ao-OA "bvii-oe, MacAvoy,”
— Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish names and surnames