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Mack vs Mackey

American parents have registered 42,900 Macks since 1880, against 618 Mackeys. Mack is still ahead, with 668 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Mack against Mackey, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Mack Mackey

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

Mack has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1996, when Mack had 84 and Mackey had 8.

Side by side

  Mack Mackey
Total US births 42,900618
Most in one year 84724
Babies in 2025 6685
Estimated living today 20,000390
Median age today 4458
Peak year 19421950
Best rank 190th boys1,499th boys
Rank in 2025 463rd12,008th
First recorded 18801919
Girls / boys 180 / 42,7206 / 612

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 Macks are over 44. That is 14 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: Mack and Mackey.