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Mack vs Maclyn

American parents have registered 42,900 Macks since 1880, against 108 Maclyns. Mack is still ahead, with 668 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mack Maclyn

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 2018, when Mack had 419 and Maclyn had 18.

Side by side

  Mack Maclyn
Total US births 42,900108
Most in one year 84718
Babies in 2025 6685
Estimated living today 20,000100
Median age today 447
Peak year 19422022
Best rank 190th boys8,032nd girls
Rank in 2025 463rd14,942nd
First recorded 18801927
Girls / boys 180 / 42,72094 / 14

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 Macks alive today are over 44; half the Maclyns are over 7. That is 37 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 Maclyn.