Mckinsey
Feminine · “son of Coinneach”
Mckinsey is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,080 girls against 22 boys since 1880.
Mckinsey is a Highland surname in American dress, and it has one very large problem: the same seven letters are the name of the most famous management consultancy in the world. For most adults that association arrives first, arrives whole, and does not leave.
How old is the name Mckinsey?
Mckinsey first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Mckinsey alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,100 people named Mckinsey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mckinsey most popular?
Mckinsey peaked in 1997, reaching #2622 nationally. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From a Gaelic patronymic meaning son of Coinneach to Mckinsey
The story of Mckinsey
James O. McKinsey was an accounting professor in Chicago who worked out, in the 1920s, that a business could be managed by budget — that you could write down what a company intended to do with its money and then measure it against what it actually did. He founded a firm to sell the idea, took over a department store to prove it, fired a great many people, and died of pneumonia a couple of years later at forty-eight. The firm outlived him by a century and turned his name into a common noun in every business school on earth, which is a strange fate for a Scottish patronymic.
Meaningscholars disagree
son of Coinneach, most likely
This is generally an American respelling of Mackenzie, arrived at by ear rather than by descent, and the Mac at the front is the Gaelic word for son. It is not certain: several distinct Scottish and Irish surnames were flattened into similar English spellings in the nineteenth century, and a family carrying this one may descend from any of them. What can be said is that the spelling with an i in the middle is an American form; it does not appear in Scottish records in any quantity.
How the name formed
- a Gaelic patronymic meaning son of Coinneach
- flattened into several English spellings in America
- an accounting professor founds a firm in 1926
- the surname becomes a byword in business
- used as an American first name from the 1980s
Related forms: Mackenzie · McKinzie · Mac Coinnich
Pronouncing Mckinsey
muh-KIN-zee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The s is voiced, so it says z, which is why the spelling with an s and the spelling with a z are indistinguishable out loud.
Nicknames for Mckinsey
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 200655 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2622reached in 1997
- Change vs 2022
- −28.6%5 in 2023, from 7
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.
Mckinsey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mackenzie in English — related form
- McKinzie in English — spelling variant
- Mac Coinnich in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Mckinseys among us
people named Mckinsey 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
Mckinsey 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
- It suits a son or a daughter, and the record carries it on both sides.
- Kinsey and Mac are both available and pull in completely different directions.
- The Highland surname behind it is genuinely old, whichever of the candidates it descends from.
- The consultancy association is total for anyone who has worked in an office, and it is not going away.
- It will be written Mackenzie, McKenzie and McKinzie by turns.
- The name means son of somebody, which is worth knowing before giving it to a daughter.
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Mckinsey
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Mckinseys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Mckinsey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mckinsey in 2025?
- Mckinsey is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Mckinsey with classmates?
- Mckinsey 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 Mckinsey? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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