Mack
A masculine name possibly derived from Irish meaning "son of the plains".
Name Census estimates that about 20,932 living Americans carry the first name Mack. It sits at #498 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mack today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mack births was 1942 (847 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mack. 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 Mack with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mack is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 180 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,375 Americans
Peak year
1942
847 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2024 SSA rank
#498
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mack in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,478 people with the first name Mack, which placed it at #1,799 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
#1,799
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
16,478 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mack
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mack is White at 60.1%. The next largest groups are Black (30.3%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Mack 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 Mack at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.1% · 9,901
- Black or African American30.3% · 4,997
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 611
- Two or more races3.6% · 591
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 249
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 129
Gender
Gender distribution for Mack
Out of the 42,229 babies given the name Mack since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Mack as a male name
- Ranked #498 in 2024
- 612 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1942 (840 births)
Mack as a female name
- Ranked #7,415 in 1967
- 5 female births in 1967
- Peak: 1922 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mack leans strongly male. 16,256 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 218 female bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Mack: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mack from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 5,687 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Mack remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mack 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 Mack during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Macks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Georgia recorded the most babies named Mack, while Maine, Nevada, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 780 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mack
The name Mack is believed to have originated as a nickname or diminutive form of the given name Mackenzie. Mackenzie is a Scottish surname that derives from the Gaelic name MacCoinnich, meaning "son of the fair bright one." The name Mack emerged as a shortened version of Mackenzie, particularly in English-speaking regions.
The earliest recorded use of the name Mack as a given name dates back to the late 18th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Mack Lesberry, an American Revolutionary War soldier who was born around 1760 in Virginia.
In the 19th century, the name Mack gained popularity in the United States. One notable figure was Mack Swain, an American vaudeville performer and silent film actor born in 1876 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Another prominent bearer was Mack Sennett, an American film producer, director, and actor, who was born in 1880 and is best known for his work in the silent film era and the creation of the Keystone Cops.
The name Mack has also been associated with several influential figures in the 20th century. Mack Gordon, an American composer and lyricist, was born in 1904 and wrote numerous popular songs for Hollywood musicals. Mack Herron, an American blues singer and guitarist better known as Champion Jack Dupree, was born in 1910 and was a influential figure in the development of blues and early rock and roll.
One of the most renowned bearers of the name Mack was Mack Robinson, an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was born in 1914 and was the older brother of the famous baseball player Jackie Robinson. Mack Robinson won a silver medal in the 200-meter sprint event during the 1936 Olympics.
While the name Mack has its roots in Scottish culture, it has been embraced across various cultures and regions, particularly in the United States, where it has been used as a given name for centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Mack
People
Mack + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mack 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
Mack: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mack?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,932 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mack 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 16,375 US residents.
Is Mack a common name?
We classify Mack as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 42,229 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mack most popular?
The single biggest year for Mack was 1942, when 847 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mack is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mack in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,478 people with the name Mack, or 5.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,799 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 Mack 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 Mack?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mack leans strongly male. 16,256 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 218 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Mack?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mack is White at 60.1%. The next largest groups are Black (30.3%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Mack most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mack in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.1% (9,901 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 Mack in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mack a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Mack in the SSA data are male. 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 Mack still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mack 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 Mack 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 have Mack as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.