McCloy
"mccloy" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“McCloy” is uncommon English (frequency #70,884 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,884
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A surname.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mccloy · McCloy · English
McCloy · rank #70,884 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #70,884
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH McDevitt
Nearest frequency peer: McDevitt (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “McCloy”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- massy
massy
29,122 corpus weight
- Mateen
Mateen
29,120 corpus weight
- McCloy
McCloy
29,117 corpus weight
- McDevitt
McDevitt
29,116 corpus weight
- McLemore
McLemore
29,115 corpus weight
- McNeal
McNeal
29,114 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “McCloy” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | McCloy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #70,884 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “McCloy” in English
Rare enough to double-check
McCloy is uncommon English at frequency #70,884 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A surname.".
McCloy doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Anglicized form of Northern Irish and Scottish Gaelic Mac Lugaidh (“son of Lugaid”), a personal name related to Old Irish Lug. The correct English form is McCloy, spelled M-C-C-L-O-Y.
Definition
- 1A surname.
Etymology
Anglicized form of Northern Irish and Scottish Gaelic Mac Lugaidh (“son of Lugaid”), a personal name related to Old Irish Lug.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "McCloy", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).