Mackinley
Scottish surname origin meaning "handsome person" or "attractive person".
Name Census estimates that about 765 living Americans carry the first name Mackinley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 54.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Mackinley today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mackinley births was 2012 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mackinley. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mackinley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
765
~ 1 in 448,045 Americans
Peak year
2012
37 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,490
Tracked since 1992
Census
Mackinley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 623 people with the first name Mackinley, which placed it at #17,614 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#17,614
National first-name rank
People counted
623
623 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mackinley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mackinley is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.1%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mackinley described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mackinley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.3% · 513
- Black or African American6.1% · 38
- Two or more races5.3% · 33
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Mackinley
Mackinley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 774 total registrations, 356 (46.0%) were male and 418 (54.0%) were female.
Mackinley as a male name
- Ranked #10,490 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (23 births)
Mackinley as a female name
- Ranked #10,725 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mackinley on both sides of the split. Of the 619 people counted with this name, 296 were male (47.8%) and 323 were female (52.2%).
Popularity
Mackinley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mackinley from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 282 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mackinley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mackinley by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mackinley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mackinley
Mackinley is a given name of Scottish origin, derived from the Gaelic words "mac" meaning "son" and "fionnlagh" meaning "fair-haired stranger" or "blonde warrior." The name likely originated in the late medieval period, around the 13th or 14th century, when Gaelic names were commonly used in Scotland.
The name Mackinley is closely linked to the Scottish clan of Mackinnon, which traces its roots back to the islands of Mull and Skye in the Hebrides. The Mackinnon clan was known for its fierce warriors and seafaring traditions, and the name Mackinley may have been used to denote a fair-haired or blonde member of the clan.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mackinley can be found in the 16th century, when a man named Mackinley of Strathardle is mentioned in the Scottish historical records. However, the name remained relatively uncommon until the 19th century, when it began to gain popularity as a given name.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Mackinley. One of the most prominent was William McKinley (1843-1901), the 25th President of the United States, whose surname is derived from the same Scottish roots as the given name Mackinley. Another notable figure was Sir Alexander Mackinnon (1865-1942), a Scottish politician and diplomat who served as the Governor of the Straits Settlements (now part of Malaysia) from 1904 to 1910.
In the world of literature, Mackinley Kantor (1904-1977) was an American novelist and screenwriter who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his novel "Andersonville." In the realm of science, Mackinley Helm (1896-1963) was an American chemist who made significant contributions to the field of organic chemistry and the development of synthetic rubber during World War II.
Additionally, Mackinley Browne (1868-1941) was a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the Attorney General of British Columbia from 1926 to 1928, while Mackinley Helmick (1888-1973) was an American businessman and philanthropist who founded the Helmick Corporation, a successful construction company in West Virginia.
People
Mackinley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mackinley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mackinley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mackinley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 765 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mackinley going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 448,045 US residents.
Is Mackinley a common name?
We classify Mackinley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 774 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mackinley most popular?
The single biggest year for Mackinley was 2012, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mackinley is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mackinley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 623 people with the name Mackinley, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,614 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mackinley in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mackinley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mackinley on both sides of the split. Of the 619 people counted with this name, 296 were male (47.8%) and 323 were female (52.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mackinley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mackinley is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.1%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mackinley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mackinley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.3% (513 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mackinley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mackinley a female name?
Yes, 54.0% of people registered as Mackinley in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mackinley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mackinley in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mackinley can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Mackinley?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Mackinley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.