Makenzi
A feminine variant of the Scottish surname Mackenzie meaning "born of fire".
Name Census estimates that about 3,556 living Americans carry the first name Makenzi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Makenzi today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Makenzi births was 2008 (238 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Makenzi. 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 Makenzi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.6K
~ 1 in 96,388 Americans
Peak year
2008
238 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,080
Tracked since 1984
Census
Makenzi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,891 people with the first name Makenzi, which placed it at #5,765 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
#5,765
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,891 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Makenzi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Makenzi is White at 71.1%. The next largest groups are Black (16.0%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Makenzi 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 Makenzi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.1% · 2,056
- Black or African American16.0% · 464
- Two or more races6.6% · 192
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 145
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 10
Popularity
Makenzi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Makenzi from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,522 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
Makenzi 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 Makenzi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Makenzis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, Florida recorded the most babies named Makenzi, while Idaho, Iowa, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 65 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Makenzi
The name Makenzi is a relatively modern name that originated as a feminine variation of the Scottish surname Mackenzie. The surname Mackenzie is derived from the Gaelic words "mac" meaning "son" and "cionnaith" referring to a personal name of uncertain etymology, possibly from the Celtic term for "bright" or "fair-skinned".
The Mackenzie clan was a prominent Scottish Highland clan whose traditional territories were in Ross-shire and Sutherland. The surname is first recorded in the 13th century, with early bearers including Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail in the late 13th century.
While the surname has a long history, the feminine given name Makenzi is a much more recent invention, likely emerging in the late 20th century as a variant spelling of the more common Mackenzie. It may have been influenced by the popularity of names ending in "-zi" or "-zie" during this period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Makenzi is Makenzi Brooke Martin, an American actress born in 1988. Other notable bearers of the name include:
Makenzi Donaldson, an American softball player who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Makenzi Fitzgerald, an American soccer player who has represented the United States at the youth international level.
Makenzi Laporte, a Canadian actress and singer known for her work in the television series "The Latest Buzz".
Makenzi Semmel, an American golfer who has competed on the LPGA Tour and the Epson Tour.
While the name Makenzi has only been in use for a relatively short time, its Scottish roots and unique spelling have contributed to its growing popularity as a feminine given name in recent decades.
People
Makenzi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Makenzi 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
Makenzi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Makenzi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,556 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Makenzi 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 96,388 US residents.
Is Makenzi a common name?
We classify Makenzi as "Rare". It ranks above 95.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,612 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Makenzi most popular?
The single biggest year for Makenzi was 2008, when 238 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Makenzi is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Makenzi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,891 people with the name Makenzi, or 0.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,765 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 Makenzi 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 Makenzi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Makenzi appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,891 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Makenzi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Makenzi is White at 71.1%. The next largest groups are Black (16.0%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Makenzi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Makenzi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.1% (2,056 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 Makenzi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Makenzi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Makenzi 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 Makenzi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Makenzi 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 Makenzi 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 Makenzi as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Makenzi, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.