Mckinley
From a Scottish surname meaning "son of the handsome lad."
Name Census estimates that about 17,892 living Americans carry the first name Mckinley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 56.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Mckinley today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mckinley births was 2014 (934 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mckinley. 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 Mckinley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Mckinley started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Mckinley sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,157 Americans
Peak year
2014
934 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#742
Tracked since 1890
Census
Mckinley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,650 people with the first name Mckinley, which placed it at #2,011 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
#2,011
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
13,650 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mckinley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mckinley is White at 68.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.9%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Mckinley 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 Mckinley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.7% · 9,373
- Black or African American20.9% · 2,856
- Two or more races5.4% · 732
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 478
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 147
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 64
Gender
Gender distribution for Mckinley
Mckinley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 22,456 total registrations, 9,756 (43.4%) were male and 12,700 (56.6%) were female.
Mckinley as a male name
- Ranked #4,380 in 2024
- 24 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (148 births)
Mckinley as a female name
- Ranked #742 in 2024
- 378 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (862 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mckinley on both sides of the split. Of the 13,648 people counted with this name, 4,180 were male (30.6%) and 9,468 were female (69.4%).
Popularity
Mckinley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mckinley from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7,927 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mckinley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mckinley 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 Mckinley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mckinleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Georgia recorded the most babies named Mckinley, while Wyoming, District of Columbia, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 327 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mckinley
The name Mckinley is a Scottish surname that originated in the Gaelic language. It is derived from the Gaelic words "mac" meaning "son" and "fionn" meaning "fair" or "white." The name McKinley, therefore, translates to "son of the fair or white one."
The name Mckinley gained popularity as a given name in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, likely due to the prominence of William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States (1897-1901). William McKinley was born in 1843 and assassinated in 1901.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Mckinley was Mckinley Naring, an American artist and painter born in 1904. He was known for his landscape paintings and murals depicting scenes of the American West.
Another notable figure with the name Mckinley was Mckinley Millet, an American writer and activist born in 1918. He was involved in the civil rights movement and wrote several books exploring themes of race, identity, and social justice.
In the world of sports, Mckinley "Deacon" Jones (1938-2013) was a renowned American football player who played as a defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams and San Diego Chargers in the National Football League (NFL). He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
Mckinley "Deacon" Moore (1913-1999) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He played with various jazz groups and led his own ensemble, the Deacon Moore Orchestra, which performed in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s.
Mckinley Morganfield, better known by his stage name Muddy Waters (1913-1983), was a legendary American blues singer and musician. He is considered one of the most influential figures in the development of modern blues music and has had a lasting impact on various genres of popular music.
While the name Mckinley is not commonly used as a given name today, it holds historical significance and has been associated with notable individuals across various fields, reflecting its Scottish origins and the influence of prominent figures who bore this name.
People
Mckinley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mckinley 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
Mckinley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mckinley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,892 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mckinley 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 19,157 US residents.
Is Mckinley a common name?
We classify Mckinley as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22,456 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mckinley most popular?
The single biggest year for Mckinley was 2014, when 934 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mckinley is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mckinley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,650 people with the name Mckinley, or 4.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,011 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 Mckinley 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 Mckinley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mckinley on both sides of the split. Of the 13,648 people counted with this name, 4,180 were male (30.6%) and 9,468 were female (69.4%). 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 Mckinley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mckinley is White at 68.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.9%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Mckinley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mckinley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.7% (9,373 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 Mckinley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mckinley a female name?
Yes, 56.6% of people registered as Mckinley 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 Mckinley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mckinley 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 Mckinley 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 Mckinley?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.