Mackenzie
Masculine · “son of the comely one”
Mackenzie is given to both — 7,861 boys and 141,274 girls since 1880. See Mackenzie as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Mackenzie is son of Coinneach — the handsome or comely one — and the Gaelic behind it is a real word, cainnech, meaning fair.
How old is the name Mackenzie?
Mackenzie first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Mackenzie alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 7,600 people named Mackenzie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mackenzie most popular?
Mackenzie peaked in 1994, reaching #366 nationally. Today it ranks #1668, 1,302 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Mackenzie appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From cainnech to Mackenzie
The story of Mackenzie
Clan Mackenzie held Kintail and later much of Ross-shire, and the surname is among the most common in the Scottish Highlands. It entered American given-name use for boys in the twentieth century, then overwhelmingly for girls from the 1990s. Masculine Mackenzie remains in current use.
Meaning
son of the comely one
From the Gaelic Mac Coinnich, 'son of Coinneach', from cainnech, 'comely' or 'fair'. The z in the English spelling is not a z at all: it renders the medieval Scots letter yogh, which represented a y sound and was set as z by printers who had no yogh. The meaning is undisputed.
How the name formed
- cainnech
- Coinneach
- Mac Coinnich
- Mackenzie
Related forms: MacCoinnich · McKenzie · Kenneth
Pronouncing Mackenzie
muh-KEN-zee
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The z represents a medieval yogh and was originally a y sound.
Nicknames for Mackenzie
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
- 1974
- Most boys named
- 1994648 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #366reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- +15.1%99 in 2025, from 86
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 Gaelic — related form
- McKenzie in English — spelling variant
- Kenneth in Scottish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, Texas.
Mackenzies among us
people named Mackenzie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 17,253 born in 2025 was named Mackenzie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Donn 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: Donn climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Donn's path sketches the road Mackenzie is walking now.
Mackenzie is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
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 looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 31% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Mackenzie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mackenzie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The yogh-to-z story is one of the best pieces of Scots spelling history there is.
- A documented Highland clan stands behind it.
- Mac and Kenzie are two short forms with their own records.
- In America the name now reads as overwhelmingly feminine.
- McKenzie is an equally established spelling.
- Three syllables make it long for everyday use.
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What they receive
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Mackenzie
Masculine · #1668 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 7,600 people named Mackenzie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mackenzie in 2025?
- Mackenzie ranks #1668 among US boy names in 2025, with 99 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mackenzie?
- About 1 in every 17,253 US boys born in 2025 was named Mackenzie — 99 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.
Namari#1668 · Zaviyar#1668 · Xaiden#1668 · Eydan#1668 · Aarush#1668 · Sylvan#1668 · Marquis#1668 · Deangelo#1668
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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