Makaley
An English feminine name derived from the Hebrew name Michaela, meaning "who is like God?".
Name Census estimates that about 119 living Americans carry the first name Makaley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Makaley today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Makaley births was 2001 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Makaley. 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.
People living today
119
~ 1 in 2,880,289 Americans
Peak year
2001
12 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2012 SSA rank
#18,534
Tracked since 1994
Census
Makaley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 143 people with the first name Makaley, which placed it at #46,519 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
#46,519
National first-name rank
People counted
143
143 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Makaley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Makaley is White at 68.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.8%) and Hispanic (8.4%). 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 Makaley 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 Makaley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.5% · 98
- Black or African American9.8% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino8.4% · 12
- Two or more races7.7% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.2% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 2
Popularity
Makaley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Makaley from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 78 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Makaley 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 Makaley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Makaley
The name Makaley is a modern invention and does not have an ancient or historical origin. It appears to be a creative spelling variation of the name Mackayla or Mackenzie, which are derived from the Scottish surname Mackenzie. The Mackenzie surname is of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the personal name Coinneach, meaning "fair bright one."
While the exact origin of the spelling Makaley is unclear, it likely emerged in the late 20th or early 21st century as a unique variant of the more common names Mackenzie and Mackayla. There are no known historical records or famous individuals from ancient times bearing this particular spelling.
Due to the recent coinage of this name, there are few individuals of historical significance who have carried it. One notable bearer is Makaley Mayfield, an American singer-songwriter born in 1997 who participated in the reality TV series The Voice in 2021.
Beyond this contemporary example, it is challenging to find individuals with the name Makaley from earlier periods. As a modern invented name, its usage is limited to recent decades, and it has not yet had the opportunity to accumulate a significant historical legacy.
The name Makaley remains a relatively uncommon and modern creation, likely chosen by parents in search of a unique and stylized variant of more traditional Scottish names like Mackenzie or Mackayla. While lacking an ancient pedigree, it reflects the ongoing evolution and creativity in name trends and personal preferences.
People
Makaley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Makaley 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
Makaley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Makaley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 119 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Makaley 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 2,880,289 US residents.
Is Makaley a common name?
We classify Makaley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 121 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Makaley most popular?
The single biggest year for Makaley was 2001, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Makaley is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Makaley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 143 people with the name Makaley, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,519 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 Makaley 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 Makaley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Makaley leans strongly female. 135 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 3 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Makaley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Makaley is White at 68.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.8%) and Hispanic (8.4%). 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 Makaley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Makaley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.5% (98 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 Makaley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Makaley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Makaley in the SSA data are female. 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 Makaley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Makaley 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 Makaley 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 common is the name Makaley?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.