Humanverse

Mckay vs Mckynzie

American parents have registered 2,665 Mckays since 1880, against 599 Mckynzies. Mckay is still ahead, with 40 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mckay against Mckynzie, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mckay Mckynzie

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

Mckay has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1917 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2017, when Mckay had 39 and Mckynzie had 30.

Side by side

  Mckay Mckynzie
Total US births 2,665599
Most in one year 11145
Babies in 2025 40under 5
Estimated living today 2,600590
Median age today 2114
Peak year 19952012
Best rank 1,182nd boys3,523rd girls
Rank in 2025 3,583rdunranked
First recorded 19171994
Girls / boys 369 / 2,296599 / 0

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 Mckays alive today are over 21; half the Mckynzies are over 14. That is 7 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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