Mackinzie
Feminine · “Son of the fair one”
Mackinzie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 824 girls against 15 boys since 1880.
Mackinzie carries a Scottish surname that is now attached, in North America, to a river its namesake did not want to find — he called it the River of Disappointment because it took him to the wrong ocean.
How old is the name Mackinzie?
Mackinzie first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Mackinzie alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 800 people named Mackinzie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mackinzie most popular?
Mackinzie peaked in 1999, reaching #2782 nationally. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From MacCoinnich to Mackinzie
The story of Mackinzie
He was looking for a route to the Pacific and followed the great river north, and it delivered him to the Arctic instead — the journal name he gave it recorded exactly how he felt about that. He went back overland four years later, reached the Pacific coast, and became the first European to cross the continent north of Mexico, more than a decade before the American expedition that is better remembered. The river kept the name of the man rather than the name he gave it, which is one of the small mercies of geography.
Meaning
Son of the fair one
The Gaelic surname means son of Coinneach, a personal name usually read as fair or comely. The spelling here alters the vowel of the second element, which is not audible.
How the name formed
- MacCoinnich
- Mackenzie
- Mackinzie
Related forms: MacCoinnich
Pronouncing Mackinzie
muh-KEN-zee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The altered vowel is unstressed and not audible.
Nicknames for Mackinzie
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
- 1981
- Most girls named
- 200350 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2782reached in 1999
- Change vs 2018
- +20.0%6 in 2022, from 5
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.
Mackinzie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- MacCoinnich in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Mackinzies among us
people named Mackinzie are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Mackinzie sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The middle stress carries well and the name shortens two ways.
- It is read correctly on sight.
- The surname behind it is documented back to the Middle Ages.
- Mackenzie and McKenzie are both standard and hers will be written as one of them.
- The Mac front means son of, which some families would rather not attach to a daughter.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, though nearly every bearer in the record is a girl.
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Mackinzie
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Mackinzies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Mackinzie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mackinzie in 2025?
- Mackinzie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Mackinzie with classmates?
- Mackinzie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mackinzie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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