McVay Name Meaning, Origin and Heraldry

Arms linked to McVey and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to.

Meaning of the name

The name McVay is closely linked to McVey. Read literally, McVay points to “From Mac an Bheatha, son of life”.

McVay is listed among the recognised spellings of McVey. Spellings drifted because names were written down by ear in parish books, tax rolls and passenger lists. 8,086 Americans were listed as McVay in the 2010 census. That is enough to place it in the top 5,000 American surnames.

For the full story, order the McVay surname pack.