Humanverse

Mckay vs Mckinsey

American parents have registered 2,665 Mckays since 1880, against 1,102 Mckinseys. Mckay is still ahead, with 40 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mckay Mckinsey

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 59 years in which either name was published, Mckay for 57 years and Mckinsey for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Mckay Mckinsey
Total US births 2,6651,102
Most in one year 11155
Babies in 2025 40under 5
Estimated living today 2,6001,100
Median age today 2123
Peak year 19952006
Best rank 1,182nd boys3,054th girls
Rank in 2025 3,583rdunranked
First recorded 19171954
Girls / boys 369 / 2,2961,080 / 22

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 Mckinseys alive today are over 23; half the Mckays are over 21. That is 2 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 Mckinsey.