Head to head · Girls' names
Macie vs Payton
#438 vs #440 in 2025
Macie is a whisker ahead (#438 vs #440 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Macie is climbing the charts fast, Payton is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Macie leads 4 measures of 6; Payton leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Macie #883, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1890s: Macie #749, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1900s: Macie #675, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1910s: Macie #724, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1920s: Macie #909, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1930s: Macie #1174, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1940s: Macie #1960, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1950s: Macie #3267, Payton — — Macie higher
- 1960s: Macie #4445, Payton #3211 — Payton higher
- 1970s: Macie #4152, Payton #8022 — Macie higher
- 1980s: Macie #3595, Payton #5921 — Macie higher
- 1990s: Macie #895, Payton #989 — Macie higher
- 2000s: Macie #458, Payton #152 — Payton higher
- 2010s: Macie #426, Payton #149 — Payton higher
- 2020s: Macie #495, Payton #318 — Payton higher
Macie stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Payton has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Macie | Payton |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #883 | — |
| 1890s | #749 | — |
| 1900s | #675 | — |
| 1910s | #724 | — |
| 1920s | #909 | — |
| 1930s | #1174 | — |
| 1940s | #1960 | — |
| 1950s | #3267 | — |
| 1960s | #4445 | #3211 |
| 1970s | #4152 | #8022 |
| 1980s | #3595 | #5921 |
| 1990s | #895 | #989 |
| 2000s | #458 | #152 |
| 2010s | #426 | #149 |
| 2020s | #495 | #318 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Macie
Either "from Macy" (a place in Normandy) or a medieval pet form of Matthew, "gift of God"
Macy the surname has two respectable origins that scholars have never fully separated. One traces it to Norman place names such as Macy and Massy, built on the Gallo-Roman personal name Maccius. The other traces it to Mace, an English short form of Mahieu — the Norman French version of Matthew, from Hebrew Mattityahu, "gift of God." Both roads end at the same surname, and the given name inherits both.
Mace → Macey → Macy → Macie
How it traveled
The name arrived in English as a surname carried by Norman families after the Conquest, spelled Macy, Macey and Massey among others, and it stayed a surname for centuries. American parents began borrowing surnames as girls' first names in earnest in the twentieth century, and Macy joined that group; Macie is the respelling that makes the pronunciation obvious on paper.
Payton
Pæga's farmstead or estate
The second element is Old English tūn, a settlement or enclosed farm, the same word that ends hundreds of English town names. The first is the personal name Pæga, whose own meaning is not recovered.
Pæga (Old English personal name) → Pæga's tūn → Peyton (English place name) → Peyton (surname) → Payton
How it traveled
Peyton is a place in Essex, recorded from the medieval period, and like most English villages it passed its name to the families who came from it. As a surname it traveled to America and stayed there, and in the twentieth century it made the usual American journey from last name to first — a route already worn smooth by Taylor, Morgan and Riley.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Macie
MAY-see
Stress on the first syllable. The -ie ending signals the see sound clearly, which is much of why this spelling exists.
- Mace — The oldest layer of the name itself, used informally; also stands alone as a surname-style name.
- Mae — Informal, drawn from the first syllable; a long-established given name in its own right.
- Macie Mae — A double-name pairing in real use, especially in the American South.
Payton
PAY-tun
Stress on the first syllable. The second is swallowed to a soft -tun or -tn; no one says PAY-tawn. The a spelling means the pronunciation is never in doubt, even if the spelling is.
- Pay — The most common informal clipping, used at home and among friends.
- Payt — A one-syllable shortening; casual, and heard mostly from peers rather than adults.
- P.J. — Initials-based, when the middle name cooperates; works in both formal and sporting contexts.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Macie if you want…
- a name on the way upup 91 places on the charts in five years
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 49% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 69% for Payton
Choose Payton if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsPayton is stepping back from its peak
- a name that feels very nowPayton is stepping back from its peak
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Macie
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds — an American reader gets MAY-see right on the first try, with no coaching.
- Two short syllables, easy to call across a yard and easy for a small child to say and write.
- On record in the United States for well over a century, so it is a new-feeling spelling with old roots behind it.
To consider
- Macy, Maci, Macey and Macie all circulate, and none of them is the default. Anyone with this name will spend a lifetime saying "with an i-e at the end," and will get the other spellings on mail and coffee cups.
- Macy's, the department store, is known everywhere in the United States. The spellings differ, but the sound does not, and the association will come up.
- Nearly everyone carrying this spelling is a child or teenager, so it reads as distinctly contemporary rather than as a name passed down. That may be exactly the point, or worth a second thought.
Payton
Strengths
- Said correctly on first sight by nearly every English speaker — the a makes the vowel unmistakable.
- Works for a boy or a girl with no change in form, since it comes to both from the same surname.
- Two syllables, six letters, no silent letters and no accents to lose in a form field.
To consider
- Peyton is the older and better-known spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections — on coffee cups, class lists and airline bookings. Saying it aloud rarely helps, since both spellings sound identical.
- The name is used for boys and girls in similar measure, which means people meeting it on paper will not know which to expect. Some families like that; others find the standing assumption tiring.
- It rose and crested within living memory, so it reads as belonging to a particular stretch of years rather than as an old family name. That is receding now, which is what makes a name feel like itself again rather than like its decade.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Macie
49%chance Macie feels dated by 2040
Macie is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Payton
69%chance Payton feels dated by 2040
Payton is coming down from a big peak (#79 in 2010). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Macie and Payton in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Macie and Payton?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Quiet perennials: a century old, never popular
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- Names that fell out of the top 100 this century
- Names that belong entirely to the 2010s
- all guides
Where Macie and Payton each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Macie or Payton — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Macie or Payton?
- Macie, in 2025: Macie ranked #438 with 703 babies; Payton ranked #440 with 701 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Macie or Payton?
- Macie. Over the last five years Macie moved up 91 places; Payton moved down 222 places.
- Which is the older name, Macie or Payton?
- Macie entered the US charts in 1882; Payton entered the US charts in 1966. On the American record, Macie is the older name.
- How many people are named Macie and Payton?
- About 21,000 people named Macie are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 59,500 people named Payton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Macies or Paytons in the classroom?
- Macie will almost certainly be the only one in school. Payton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Macie, Payton and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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