Humanverse

Mckinley vs Mckynlee

American parents have registered 22,884 Mckinleys since 1880, against 638 Mckynlees. Mckinley is still ahead, with 423 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mckinley Mckynlee

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

Mckinley has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1890 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2009, when Mckinley had 453 and Mckynlee had 32.

Side by side

  Mckinley Mckynlee
Total US births 22,884638
Most in one year 93460
Babies in 2025 42316
Estimated living today 18,000630
Median age today 1310
Peak year 20142013
Best rank 379th girls2,837th girls
Rank in 2025 712th6,838th
First recorded 18901999
Girls / boys 13,098 / 9,786638 / 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 Mckinleys alive today are over 13; half the Mckynlees are over 10. That is 3 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: Mckinley and Mckynlee.