Humanverse

Mackey vs Macy

American parents have registered 33,304 Macys since 1880, against 618 Mackeys. Macy is still ahead, with 390 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mackey against Macy, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mackey Macy

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 138 years in which either name was published, Macy for 132 years and Mackey for 6 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Mackey Macy
Total US births 61833,304
Most in one year 241,494
Babies in 2025 5390
Estimated living today 39032,000
Median age today 5820
Peak year 19502003
Best rank 1,499th boys219th girls
Rank in 2025 12,008th718th
First recorded 19191885
Girls / boys 6 / 61232,749 / 555

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Mackeys alive today are over 58; half the Macys are over 20. That is 38 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Mackey and Macy.