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Baby Name of the Day: Mackenzie

By 48 Comments

A representation of the Mackenzie dress tartan.

A representation of the Mackenzie dress tartan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A 70s sitcom propelled this name to the top of the charts in the 1990s.

Thanks to everyone who suggested Mackenzie as Our Baby Name of the Day.

In 1976, the US Top 100 included Stephanie, Melanie, and Valerie.  And for the first time ever, the Top 1000 included the similar Mackenzie for girls, too.  She snuck into the rankings at #838.

The Scottish surname comes from a given name that meant attractive.  It was originally Mac Coinneach or Mac Coinnich.  Purists will insist that Mac means “son of” – and they’re correct.  As for Coinneach, it is typically Anglicized as Kenneth.

Mackenzie has been in sparing use for boys over the centuries.  A nineteenth century Canadian prime minister is one notable; British artist Mackenzie Thorpe is a contemporary example.  In the US, Mackenzie ranked in the boys’ Top 1000 from 1985 to 2001, likely some blend of family name and nod to Scottish heritage, bolstered by the stories of Clan Mackenzie.  His wider popularity came thanks to actor Mackenzie Astin, who joined the cast of The Facts of Life as Andy in 1985.

Like many surnames and some modern coinages, Mackenzie was on the rise for boys and girls at the same time.

Credit for popularizing the name for girls goes to Laura Mackenzie Phillips, better known by her middle name.  The daughter of John Phillips, legendary member of the folk quartet The Mamas & the Papas, Mackenzie became an actress and household name in her own right.  She made her big screen debut in 1973’s American Graffiti before starring in 1970s hit sitcom One Day at a Time.

Phillips played rebellious teenager Julie Cooper.  Life imitated fiction, as Phillips struggled with a host of personal problems.  She left the series more than once, and her tell-all biography reveals drug abuse and more.  But none of that has tarnished the name Mackenzie.

Mackenzie debuted in the girls’ Top 1000 at #838 in 1976, and climbed steadily.  Three syllable, ends-in-ee names have always been popular for girls, from Dorothy to Kimberly to Natalie to Destiny.  Plenty of parents who have used the name in recent years have probably never heard of the 70s sitcom.

Mackenzie reached #198 in 1991, broke into the Top 100 in 1995, and peaked at #40 in 2001.  Today she stands at #68.  Like many a popular name, Mackenzie splintered.  In 2001, three spellings were in favor:

  • Mackenzie at #40
  • Mckenzie at #135
  • Makenzie at #198

All three spellings remain in the Top 1000 today.  Countless more are in use: Makenzy, Mckenzi, Mackenzi, Makenzee, Mikenzie, Mekenzie, Mackensie, Makenzye, even Mkenzie, likely spelled M’Kenzie in real life.  The Duggar mega-family introduced first granddaughter Mykenzie on their reality show, the spelling apparently inspired by a cousin’s name.

Today the oldest Mackenzies are moms themselves, but most are still school-aged, or even younger, as the names fades slowly from the heights of popularity.  While parents are still using Mackenzie and company, it would be hard to argue that she’s fresh or inventive today.  And she’s not quite classic, either.  That said, if Mackenzie is a family name, it remains a great possibility – just stick to the original spelling.  Mackenzie seems infinitely more sophisticated than, say, M’ahkensee.

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Comments

  1. As is my general feeling on using surnames, I like Mackenzie only if there is a family connection, and spelt the way the family spells it.

    I always feel a bit odd about the popularity of surnames as first names. It seems like there’s a very narrow range of names, mostly derived from some part of the UK. No big trend towards naming kids Rodriguez for no particular reason, or Mikhailovich, and they’re as much patrynomics as MacKenzie or Jackson.

    It feels a bit weird to me.

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    • Jordanna, I agree – and I would hesitate to ink an English surname on my kids’ birth certificates, as they’re mostly Italian and Polish, and it feels the tiniest bit inauthentic. But I’m into family names. If I weren’t, there are lots of surnames that appeal to me on sound alone.

      My husband’s middle is the English equivalent of his mother’s maiden name. I’ve met a few other people who have similar stories, or have made similar choices for their children. I know someone who truncated a long, family German surname to get a very wearable middle name for both of her kids. So they’re tough to spot, but I do think they’re out there …

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  2. To me, taking a name from a foreign country and not respecting its original gender is not only annoying, but disrespectful. Mackenzie clearly is a masculine name, and it remains masculine in the UK (McKenzie, Mackenzie and Kenzie). I once met a older irish man who was appaled that people named girls Kelly, he said “if you’re naming your daughters Kelly you might as well name her Patrick”. If I were Irish or Scottish or whatever, say named MacKenzie or Rory, and I came to the US to find it being used and abused on little girls, I’d be not only irritated, but I’d probably feel insulted.

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  3. Mackenzie doesn’t bother me because I grew up with so many it seems as normal a name as Allison.

    Makayla bothers me immensely, mostly because I love the name spelled Michaela.

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  4. Unless you’re a total “meaning of names” purist, to criticize the “son of” names is silly because there are tons of names that have meanings that aren’t great.

    Meaning can be important, but I have a feeling that people who are looking down on parents who have named their daughter something that means “son of” think a name like Sloane is cool- Sloane apparently means “man of arms.”

    And so what if someone borrows a name from another culture? Being American, I could identify at least 10 different countries in my background… at some point, it all just gets muddled.

    One reason that this site is so great is because I can see a name and not like it, but once I’ve read the history about it, I at least appreciate it more.

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    • I agree with you completely, AirLand. I happen to like the meanings of my kids’ names, but those are happy accidents. We took names (more or less) from our family trees. If those names had unpleasant derivations it simply would not matter one bit.

      As for backgrounds, that’s a very nice point. Our kids can claim at least half a dozen heritages, but their names don’t match up very well with our ancestors’ nations of origin. I’d never actually given it a moment’s thought. (That’s saying something, I think.)

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  5. This could grow on me if someone actually used it in honour of a family name. It is interesting to note that many have said this is the type of name they would have liked as a child and used on their Barbies. Not me. I went from despising it to actually somewhat appreciating it if used in the correct context. Even then, it is still not a huge favorite.

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  6. Well, MacKenzie *is* my surname, and I much prefer it with the capital K.

    When Josie was born, she didn’t have a first name to go on the bassinet at the hospital so they wrote only her last name on it. I got so many “oh, what a pretty name” comments which made me cringe as I replied (every time) with a ” but that’s her Last Name!”

    That said, the cute little girl across the street is a Mackenzie. We were invited to her big brother [email protected]’s birthday party a few years ago. When his mom found out our last name was the same as her princess’s first, she was horrified. She has since stopped talking to us and tries very hard to pretend we’re not here. 😀 It makes me laugh, actually. I think it’s a horrible choice for a girl’s first name if it’s a random choice. If it’s a family name, I wouldn’t mind it on a boy. I can’t wait to hear what little Mackenzie’s nickname will end up. (My money’s on Mac). ;D

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  8. I know a man whose mother wanted to name him Mackenzie in the mid 80s, but got talked down into making it a middle name instead. His first name is Ryan and he’s said he dodged a bullet (he has a very traditional, conservative personality, lifestyle and career).

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  9. I was honestly surprised by the Mackenzie hate, especially those who take issue with the meaning. Do you dislike Allison just as much? What about Charlotte, the feminization of Charles, meaning “manly?” Or Mallory, meaning bad luck? Or Cecilia? Claudia?

    If so, more power to you for at least being consistent. But it truly bothers me when people get hung up on one meaning but not another, equally “bad.”

    Mackenzie’s not my style, but like many I like to avoid surnames that aren’t in my family tree. But I can’t say I’d rule out MacKay (rhymes with eye), which IS a family name, for a boy OR girl.

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    • Because Mackenzie is taking a surname from a foreign culture that was created to signify something very simple – a boy who is Kenneth’s son – and use it for a woman who is Albert or Bill’s son. With Addison and Emerson is even worse because these the meaning in so obvious even in modern English – Addy’s son, Emer’s son (yet somehow Jackson and Harrison are seen as completely male – go figure).

      (Alison is a French name of a completely different origin – Alice plus the diminutive suffix “on”. Not comparable.)

      Charlotte, Claudia, and Cecilia have been used in the Western World for centuries. They are the names of royals and saints and those associations are much more important than their original, obscure meanings.

      That being said, I don’t have a problem with using surnames as first names as long as they are actually in the family tree – and aren’t patronymics on girls.

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      • I don’t quite understand the hatred of patronymics on girls when dealing with a name in their family tree. Obviously, women have been given said names as surnames for centuries. I would understand the logic if such names were only given to male decendants, but that isn’t the case now. Also, to me, the “meaning” of the name is referencing the first “son of Kenneth,” and not the whole of his lineage.

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        • To clarify, I am referring to last names with “I would understand the logic if such names were only given to male decendants, but that isn’t the case now.”

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      • depends on where you live. not many people where I’m from would have any idea of the name of a royal or a saint with any of those names. Mackenzie does not feel like it comes from a foreign culture to them if their grandfather is Scottish, for instance. Most people who use mackenzie on a girl though aren’t familiar with any of those things. they just like how it sounds.

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  11. Those spelling variations just gave me a headache! Ack!

    Mackenzie: don’t hate it, but it’s possibly my least favorite of the “hated names” so far this week…

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  12. I just found out the other day that the newest American Girl doll (a gymnast who’s getting her own TV movie, presumably to coincide with the Olympics) is named McKenna. Ugh. Thanks a lot, Mattel.

    Actually, like most of these so-called “hated names,” I don’t so much hate the name as the way people tend to USE the name (i.e. for no personal reason, just going along with whatever’s popular). Not to mention the nonsensical spellings. If I’d heard the Mackenzie on a girl for the first time back in the 70s (before I was born), I probably would have liked it a lot.

    Reply

    • they might have personal reasons, they like how it sounds or what it makes them think of or they know someone with the name. but some people are more limited in their knowledge of names or of what names they think will help their child in life. I think with more exposure to names they might well like Meredith or even Millie or Mildred.

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  13. My sister’s middle name is Mackenzie; my mom chose it specifically because she wanted a gender neutral middle name. We all know how well that turned out.

    I’ve always wondered why Americans take masculine names like Mackenzie and Meredith and turn them feminine, whereas those same names will remain masculine in the UK.

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  14. If one wanted a girl’s name to honor a Kenneth, the choices aren’t great: Kenna, Kendall, Kendra. Kenzie/Kensy is growing on me as a cute choice. I’m still not a fan of the Mac- names though.

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  15. When I was in 1st grade or so in the early 70s I had a female classmate named Mackenzie. I didn’t really like the name (or the girl) back then and I don’t care for it any more today. That -zee sound at the end isn’t very appealing to me.

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  16. I don’t hate Mackenzie, but I generally don’t like using family names to which one has no tie. I enjoy seeing family names passed down to boys and girls, or even names that have significance in a favorite author, etc. Several of my familial names have turned popular (Jordan being the most), and it annoys me. I do have one surname on my boy’s list, Bennett. I see it differently, though, as it was originally a given name (the medieval English form of Benedict) before it was a surname. I love it for its Jane Austen associations, too.

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  18. Mackenzie, McKinley (or more likely Makinley), Makenna, Makayla Ma-what-the-heck?

    It occurs to me that the reason the names this weeks are so despised is ause they’re not very sophisticated. At all. At the core, they sound like names I’d’ve liked as a child, or names that less sophisticated women like. Not that I’m completely mature, or anything, but I believe I have grown a lot since I was naming my Barbies at 12 years old. But sometimes, those names stick, and to me, they represent an unsophisticated choice.

    Reply

    • There’s something to that, I think. I once worked with a Mackenzie who is just a few years younger than me. She was Southern and insanely pretty – I suspect it was a family name, but I never asked. The name seemed impossibly sophisticated and smart. But then, that 1992 or so, when Mackenzie was just catching on, and she must have been born in the late 1970s, when the name wasn’t even in the Top 1000. Once a name is everywhere, it does change how I think about it … if say, Sloane becomes a Top 100 name, I wonder if I’ll be dismissive of it in another twenty years. Right now, I like it very much.

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      • Yes, and I liked Sloane enormously when I was 16-19 years old. In that sense, I feel like I’ve matured beyond it, though I have a soft spot for it.

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  19. Mackenzie King was Prime Minister of Canada in the first half of the 20th century, not in the 19th century.

    The first female Mackenzie I ever met was a classmate in grade three. When I invited her to my birthday party my parents had me spell her name “MacKenzie” because they insisted that the K in the name was capitlised. They were wrong of course. I also recall my dad wondering why someone would name their daughter after a male Canadian Prime Minister.

    As with many a name fan, I’m a bit of purist when it comes to names that have “son” in them given to girls (my least favourite is Addison, but that’s mostly because it always makes me think of the disease). Ok, actually I can understand why you might use such a name if it’s a family name since a female equivalent is often hard to come by, but if you’re not honouring your roots I don’t personally get the appeal.

    However, as with many a name I dislike, the personal stories shared by parents for the reason for their choice will often sway me in the name’s favour. I really wish I knew why Rowling picked this one. . .

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    • I agree! I would love to know the other names on her short list … I’ve heard that Rowling’s mom was half-Scottish. Maybe there’s a tie there.

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      • I’ve got a couple of theories as to why she picked Mackenzie, but I don’t know if any of them are right… the first is just that I think she tried to give her children more “modern” names than those of her characters, in order to differentiate them. I think that was a really excellent choice, considering the annoyance of her fame in everyday life. (Although I suppose “David” isn’t particularly modern. But I’m convinced that was after David Copperfield.)

        The Scottish heritage is probably another factor. And in the Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is actually across the street from where Rowling wrote part of the first book, there are several graves with character names on them. And there’s a grave to “Henry Mackenzie: the Man of Feeling”. I didn’t know anything about him when I visited Edinburgh and saw that, but I did sort of think “hmm”. And then I went and looked him up, and it turns out he was an ardent Tory, which goes against her politics, so probably that wasn’t the inspiration, but…. “The Man of Feeling” does sound very Rowling. And perhaps she liked that, and liked the fact he was an author, and it caused some inspiration.

        I don’t know. But it’s fun to theorize.

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    • You are both right about Canadian prime ministers! There are actually three with MacKenzie in their name: Sir Alexander MacKenzie (2nd prime minister), Sir MacKenzie Bowell (5th), and William Lyon MacKenzie King (10th). But really only Bowell has it as a given name.

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      • My bad! Can you tell that I wasn’t actually educated in Canada? That is, apart from a few months spread between Grade 2 and Grade 3. I was born in the country and moved back there to attend university (during which time I didn’t take Canadian history). I’m going to make it a goal now to read the wikipedia articles on every Canadian Prime Minister there was, that way their names might stick.

        However, while William Lyon Mackenzie King’s first name wasn’t Mackenzie, that’s usually the name people use to refer to him. It’s funny. All these Mackenzies in Canadian politics in some ways makes this a legitimately Canadian name, if only for boys.

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        • I love the name Mackenzie, and I do like the spelling Mackensie I saw above, though not really any of the others. For me it’s a very canadian name! I always think of a river that’s in northern canada, right? I just picture some sort of Jack London figure off in the wilds of northern canada, and Mackenzie seems perfect for a boy. Although where I live I’m pretty sure most folks see this as a girl name and use those more hideous spellings. Still, if it’s spelled decent, I like it for a girl. It doesn’t matter to me that it means son of Kenneth. You might name your son Mackenzie even if his dad is not Kenneth, so what’s the difference? You might name her Lydia even though she doesn’t come from that part of the world.
          seems ridiculous to me to worry about the ‘mac’ part. There were ways of distinguishing daughters, they just don’t make attractive names. The Welsh put Verch in front of the dad’s name verch Hugh (daughter of Hugh), well, you’re not going to name her Verchugh or Verchkenzie, now are you?

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  20. Ugh, I really do hate the name Mackenzie. If it is legitimately in your family tree, fine. But otherwise, please be aware that your daughter’s name basically means “son of Kenneth”. I also hate that this name has dozens of spellings. And the Duggars’ Mackynzie is one of the worst baby names I’ve seen in a long while. They redeemed themselves a bit with Michael, but somehow I see Mackynzie’s brother as a Kayden.
    I know a 9 yo Mackenzie who goes mostly by Mack. Her sisters are [email protected] and [email protected] There are worse sibsets out there, but their mom (a lovely woman!) isn’t winning any Nameberry awards 🙂

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    • My name is Mackenzie, and my dad’s name is Kenneth 🙂 So for me it’s “daughter of Kenneth”.

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        • No, in her case it is daughter of … literally. She was named Mackenzie in honor of her dad. My frustration about the whole “son” argument is that English so often ignores gender. Mankind doesn’t exclude me, but it can feel exclusionary. Instead of “son of,” I firmly believe that we should read “descendant of.” It isn’t as if there is a feminine form, and plenty of women inherited the surname from a male ancestor, too.

          Reply

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