Mackenna
Feminine · “son of Cionaodh”
Mackenna is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 3,660 girls against 8 boys since 1880.
Mackenna is a respelling of McKenna, an Irish and Scottish surname meaning son of Cionaodh — a name built, in the older Irish, on fire. It is given almost entirely to girls in American records, which is a long way from where it started.
How old is the name Mackenna?
Mackenna first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Mackenna alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 3,600 people named Mackenna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mackenna most popular?
Mackenna peaked in 2008, reaching #1320 nationally. Today it ranks #3211, 1,891 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cionaodh to Mackenna
The story of Mackenna
Mac Cionaodha was the name of families in Monaghan and in Scotland, and English writing produced McKenna, MacKenna and Mackenna from it. The surname reached America with Irish emigration in the nineteenth century. Its use as a girls' given name is recent and belongs to a group — McKenna, McKenzie, Mackenzie — in which Gaelic patronymics meaning son of are given overwhelmingly to daughters, which is one of the more cheerful ironies in American naming.
Meaningscholars disagree
son of Cionaodh
The Mac is settled: it is the Gaelic word for son. The personal name behind it, Cionaodh, is generally read as born of fire, though the first element is disputed and other readings have been proposed.
How the name formed
- Cionaodh
- Mac Cionaodha
- McKenna
- Mackenna
Related forms: Mac Cionaodha · McKenna
Pronouncing Mackenna
muh-KEN-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Mackenna
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1986
- Most girls named
- 2008187 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1320reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −10.9%49 in 2025, from 55
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Mackenna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mac Cionaodha in Irish — related form
- McKenna in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Pennsylvania, New York.
Mackennas among us
people named Mackenna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 32,801 born in 2025 was named Mackenna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mackenna
- #3211
- Mackenna on the 2025 chart
- #449
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mackenna went to 49 girls in 2025, but Makenna, Makena and Makennah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 612, which makes it the 449th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,762 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,626 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 32,801 for Mackenna itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Clarita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mackenna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clarita climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clarita's path sketches the road Mackenna is walking now.
Mackenna sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mackenna is headed
Mackenna is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Mackenna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mackenna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Gaelic surname with a real and vivid personal name behind it.
- Kenna is a complete short form that stands entirely on its own.
- The sound is understood at once by any English speaker.
- McKenna is the standard spelling and the capital K will be added for her constantly.
- The name literally means son of, which she will find out and may enjoy or not.
- Mackenzie and Mackenna are close enough to be confused in speech and on paper.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Mackenna
Feminine · #3211 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mackennas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,600 people named Mackenna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mackenna?
- Mackenna is one of 4 recorded spellings. Makenna is the more common one — 495 births in 2025 against 49 for Mackenna.
- How popular is the name Mackenna in 2025?
- Mackenna ranks #3211 among US girl names in 2025, with 49 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mackenna?
- About 1 in every 32,801 US girls born in 2025 was named Mackenna — 49 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mackenna with classmates?
- Mackenna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mackenna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kristine#3211 · Jalaya#3211 · Gladys#3211 · Amyah#3211 · Dhara#3211 · Janelly#3211 · Dariela#3211 · Quetzalli#3211
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mackenna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mackenna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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