Mckinnley
Of Scottish origin, representing a diminutive form of "Innis," meaning "small island."
Name Census estimates that about 560 living Americans carry the first name Mckinnley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Mckinnley today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mckinnley births was 2011 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mckinnley. 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
560
~ 1 in 612,061 Americans
Peak year
2011
51 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2017 SSA rank
#7,111
Tracked since 1994
Census
Mckinnley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 566 people with the first name Mckinnley, which placed it at #18,900 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
#18,900
National first-name rank
People counted
566
566 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mckinnley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mckinnley is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.3%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Mckinnley 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 Mckinnley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.2% · 420
- Black or African American16.3% · 92
- Two or more races4.8% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Mckinnley
Mckinnley leans heavily female at 87.3% of total registrations, but 72 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mckinnley as a male name
- Ranked #13,581 in 2017
- 5 male births in 2017
- Peak: 2011 (9 births)
Mckinnley as a female name
- Ranked #7,111 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (42 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mckinnley on both sides of the split. Of the 566 people counted with this name, 126 were male (22.3%) and 440 were female (77.7%).
Popularity
Mckinnley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mckinnley from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 294 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mckinnley 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 Mckinnley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mckinnleys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mckinnley
The name Mckinnley is a Scottish surname that has been adapted as a given name. It is derived from the Gaelic words "mac" meaning "son" and "fhionnghaill" meaning "of the fair stranger or foreigner." The name was originally a patronymic surname given to those who were descendants of a person who had immigrated to Scotland from another country.
The earliest recorded use of the name Mckinnley dates back to the 16th century in Scotland. It was a common surname among Scottish clans, particularly in the Highlands and Islands regions. The name did not gain popularity as a given name until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Mckinnley is William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States. He was born in 1843 and served as President from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. McKinley's presidency was marked by the Spanish-American War and the acquisition of territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
Another famous person with the name Mckinnley was Ida McKinley, the wife of President William McKinley. She was born in 1847 and served as the First Lady of the United States from 1897 to 1901. Ida McKinley was known for her advocacy work in promoting the welfare of children and families.
McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, was an influential blues musician who played a significant role in shaping the sound of modern blues music. He was born in 1915 and passed away in 1983. Muddy Waters is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Chicago Blues."
In the literary world, McKinley Kantor was an American novelist and historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his novel "Andersonville." He was born in 1904 and died in 1977.
Another notable person with the name Mckinnley was McKinley Nolan, an American professional baseball player who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in 1925 and passed away in 2016.
People
Mckinnley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mckinnley 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
Mckinnley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mckinnley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 560 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mckinnley 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 612,061 US residents.
Is Mckinnley a common name?
We classify Mckinnley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 566 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mckinnley most popular?
The single biggest year for Mckinnley was 2011, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mckinnley is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mckinnley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 566 people with the name Mckinnley, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,900 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 Mckinnley 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 Mckinnley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mckinnley on both sides of the split. Of the 566 people counted with this name, 126 were male (22.3%) and 440 were female (77.7%). 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 Mckinnley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mckinnley is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.3%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Mckinnley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mckinnley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.2% (420 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 Mckinnley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mckinnley a female name?
Yes, 87.3% of people registered as Mckinnley 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 Mckinnley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mckinnley 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 Mckinnley 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 the name Mckinnley?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.