Mackenzie
Feminine · “son of Coinneach”
Mackenzie is given to both — 141,274 girls and 7,861 boys since 1880. See Mackenzie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Mackenzie began as the name of a Highland clan whose lands lay around Kintail and Ross-shire, and it carries a small piece of Scots writing history inside it: the z is a leftover of the old letter yogh, so Scots once said something closer to Mac-KEN-yee. It came into American nurseries as a surname first, and settled into a shape almost everyone can spell on the first try.
How old is the name Mackenzie?
Mackenzie first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Mackenzie alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 140,000 people named Mackenzie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mackenzie most popular?
Mackenzie peaked in 2001, reaching #40 nationally. Today it ranks #228, 188 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Where it comes from
From Coinneach to Mackenzie
The story of Mackenzie
The Gaelic form is Mac Coinnich, "son of Coinneach", the name of one of the great Highland kindreds, centered on Kintail and later Ross-shire. In Middle Scots writing the sound at the middle of the word was spelled with a yogh, a letter that printers eventually replaced with z — which is how a name pronounced Mac-KEN-yee in Gaelic Scotland became Mackenzie on the page and then in the mouth. Scottish emigration carried the surname across the Atlantic in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, into Canada especially, where it belongs to rivers, mountains and prime ministers. The move from family name to girls' given name happened in the United States within living memory, part of the broader turn towards surnames as first names for daughters.
Meaning
son of Coinneach — a Gaelic given name meaning "comely, handsome, fair"
Coinneach was long anglicized as Kenneth, which is why the two names are often mentioned together, though they reach English by different routes.
Cultural footprint
Mackenzie Foy (b. 2000) — Played young Murph in Interstellar
Mackenzie Davis (b. 1987) — Halt and Catch Fire and Terminator star
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Coinneach
- Mac Coinnich
- MacKenȝie
- Mackenzie
Related forms: MacCoinnich · McKenzie · Makenzie · Mackenzy · Mac Coinnigh
Pronouncing Mackenzie
muh-KEN-zee
Stress on the middle syllable. Some speakers say MAK-ken-zee with a fuller first vowel; both are ordinary in American English. The historical Scots Mac-KEN-yee is no longer used for the given name.
Nicknames for Mackenzie
High
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 20016,934 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #40reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- −11.9%1,343 in 2025, from 1,524
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.
Mackenzie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- MacCoinnich in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- McKenzie in English — spelling variant
- Makenzie in English — spelling variant
- Mackenzy in English — spelling variant
- Mac Coinnigh in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Mackenzies among us
people named Mackenzie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,197 born in 2025 was named Mackenzie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mackenzie
- #228
- Mackenzie on the 2025 chart
- #189
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mackenzie went to 1,343 girls in 2025, but Makenzie is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,749, which makes it the 189th most-given girls’ name of the year — 39 places above the chart.
- Mackenzie1,343
- Makenzie406
About 1 girl in 919 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,197 for Mackenzie 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 Alicia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mackenzie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alicia climbed just as high around 1984, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alicia's path sketches the road Mackenzie is walking now.
Mackenzie is coming down from a big peak (#40 in 2001). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mackenzie is headed
Mackenzie is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High 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.
Mackenzie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mackenzie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling that most English speakers can hear once and write correctly, since the surname is widely known.
- Kenzie is an established, ready-made short form, with Mac and Kenz behind it.
- Documented as a clan name in the Scottish Highlands for centuries, with a clear line back to Gaelic Coinneach.
- Recognizable across the English-speaking world, and especially familiar in Canada, where it attaches to major places.
- Three spellings circulate — Mackenzie, McKenzie and Makenzie — plus a capital-K variant, so a Mackenzie will spend a fair amount of life confirming which one is hers.
- The name is strongly represented among people now in their twenties and thirties, so it may read as belonging to that cohort rather than to a newborn — though it is stepping back from its peak, which tends to make a name feel less dated over time.
- As a surname, Mackenzie is still given to boys and used as a family name, so a girl may occasionally meet the assumption that it is a last name or a boy's.
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Mackenzie
Feminine · #228 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mackenzies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 140,000 people named Mackenzie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mackenzie?
- Mackenzie is the most-used spelling in US records — 1,343 of the 1,749 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Makenzie.
- How popular is the name Mackenzie in 2025?
- Mackenzie ranks #228 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,343 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mackenzie?
- About 1 in every 1,197 US girls born in 2025 was named Mackenzie — 1,343 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mackenzie with classmates?
- Mackenzie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mackenzie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Gracie#227 · Kiara#229 · Noa#226 · Rory#230 · Wren#231 · Presley#225 · Palmer#232 · Alaina#224
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mackenzie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mackenzie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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