Author: Nancy Man

The Irish surname McAdoo emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 1917:

• 1919: 12 baby boys named Mcadoo
• 1918: 26 baby boys named Mcadoo
• 1917: 11 baby boys named Mcadoo [debut]
• 1916: unlisted
• 1915: unlisted

The SSA data from that far back isn’t terribly reliable, though, so here’s data from the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) for the same time period:

• 1919: 11 people with the first name Mcadoo
• 1918: 24 people with the first name Mcadoo
• 1917: 6 people with the first name Mcadoo
• 1916: no people with the first name Mcadoo
• 1915: 2 people with the first name Mcadoo

What was drawing expectant parents’ attention to the surname McAdoo during the late 1910s?

Businessman and politician William Gibbs McAdoo (1863-1941), who served as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1913 to 1918 under his father-in-law, Woodrow Wilson. (McAdoo was married to Wilson’s youngest daughter, Eleanor.)

William G. McAdoo became relatively famous during WWI:

[A]s chair of the War Finance Corporation, he basically set up the policy for how to fund World War I by raising taxes and instituting gold savings bonds called “Liberty Loans,” a money-raising and propaganda tool. When German submarine attacks made transatlantic trade dangerous and expensive, he created the U.S. Shipping Board in 1916. And he served as director general of U.S. railroads when the government started controlling the railroads to make sure military supplies and personnel got transported in a timely manner.

People were so impressed with McAdoo’s achievements that they “equated him to Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury.”

In 1918 — the year that the baby name McAdoo saw peak usage on birth certificates — various U.S. newspapers published the following McAdoo-inspired poem:

Poor Mr. McAdoo!
Think of the jobs he’s hitched up to do!–
The Treasury, the Railroad crew,
The Income Tax and then a few.
Each week they hand him something new
To tax his time and temper too.
He has to know when loans are due,
What source to get his billions through,
What fund to pass each dollar to,
Which tax is what, and who is who;
What bonds to sell and what renew,
Which “trust” to coax and which to sue.
He stretches out each day to two,
To do the things he has to do.
The job would flounder me or you–
But it’s a cinch for McAdoo!

The same year, sheet music for a McAdoo-inspired song was published:

William G. McAdoo campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination twice, in 1920 and 1924, but lost both times. (The surname’s final appearance in the baby name data was 1924, in fact.)

Here are several interesting examples of “McAdoo” being used as either a first or a middle name:

• McAdoo Pershing McBride (b. 1919 in Texas)
• McAdoo Wilson Clouser (b. 1918 in Indiana)
• William Gibbs Mcadoo Stoffel (b. 1918 in Texas)
• Woodrow McAdoo Miles (b. 1917 in North Carolina)

The surname McAdoo is an Anglicized form of Mac Conduibh, Gaelic for “son of Cú Dhubh,” with cú dhubh meaning “black hound.”

Do you like McAdoo as a given name? Why or why not?

Sources:

• Waxman, Olivia B. “Jared Kushner Wouldn’t Be the First Powerful Son-in-Law in Presidential History.” Time 11 Jan. 2017.
• William Gibbs McAdoo – Wikipedia
• Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• FamilySearch.org
• SSA

Images: Adapted from William Gibbs McAdoo (public domain) and Mister McAdoo (LOC)

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]