The McKenzie surname

In the 2010 U.S. Census, 59,595 people carried this name — #563 among all U.S. surnames, about 1 in every 4,950 people counted. That is up 8% from 55,084 in 2000.

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Where the name comes from

The origin of the McKenzie surname

A Scottish surname from Scottish Gaelic, variant of MacKenzie.

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary (en.wiktionary.org) — entry «McKenzie» (English), by Wiktionary contributors · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · excerpt, lightly adapted.

In Ireland’s birth registers, 1890

Ireland registered 22 births for the McKenzie name in 1890.

Most were registered in Ulster. By the Registrar-General’s own method — births multiplied by 44.38 — that is about 1,000 people bearing the name in Ireland at the time. One of them was indexed under another spelling of the name.

Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.

Where they were born, 1890

Ulster 13
Leinster 7
Connacht 2

Registrar-General for Ireland, «Special Report on Surnames in Ireland» (R. E. Matheson, 1894), births index of 1890 — public domain.

In Poland’s population register

25 people named McKenzie have a registered home in Poland.

Of the 79 in Poland’s national register, these are the ones with a permanent address on file. They live in 6 of Poland’s 16 voivodeships, most of all in Lesser Poland.

Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.

Where they live today

Lesser Poland 7
Masovian 5
Silesian 5
Lower Silesian 4
Pomeranian 2
West Pomeranian 2

PESEL register, Ministry of Digital Affairs of Poland (dane.gov.pl) — CC0 · living people by voivodeship of permanent residence, 20 January 2026.

In the Nordic population registers

42 people named McKenzie is counted in Sweden.

Sweden’s figure is from 31 December 2022, the last count Statistics Sweden published.

Counted, by country

Sweden (2022) 42

Own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), surnames with at least two bearers, 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0 (names with 20 or more bearers shown).

In Scotland, 1880s

McKenzie and Mackenzie, counted together, were 50 in every 10,000 names in Scotland.

That is about 1 in 200. Its home there, in Guppy’s words: “Ross and Inverness shires.” He counted the more than 20,000 names in Halliburton’s County Directory of Scotland, taking Scotland as a whole, and listed only the names that reached 10 in every 10,000.

H. B. Guppy, «Homes of Family Names in Great Britain» (London, 1890), appendix: alphabetical list of the most frequent Scottish names, p. 591 — public domain · names in Halliburton’s County Directory of Scotland, per 10,000 for the whole country.

In Scotland’s registers today

McKenzie was recorded 239 times in Scotland’s registers of births, marriages and deaths in 2025.

That made it the 81st most common name in those registers. In 1975, the first year of the series, the count was 448. Each birth counts the child’s surname, each marriage both partners’ and each death the surname of the person who died — a yearly count of registrations, not of the people who live in Scotland.

National Records of Scotland, «Most Common Surnames, 2025» (published 26 May 2026): every surname recorded 10 or more times in the 2025 registers, and the series from 1975 · different spellings are counted separately — © Crown copyright 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

In the first U.S. census, 1790

In 1790, McKenzie was counted together with McKinsey: 118 families in all.

Each family is counted by its head. About 528 people lived in those households, 4.5 to a family on average. The census counted these spellings together: McKinsey, McCinsey, McCinzie, Mcinsey, McKensee, McKensey, McKensie, McKensy, McKenzie, Mackenzie, McKenzy, McKinsay, McKinseg, McKinsei, M'Kinsey, McKinsie, McKinssy, McKinsy, McKinzey, McKinzie. The table lists white heads of families only, in the twelve states whose 1790 records survive; Virginia’s figures come from state lists of 1782–1785.

Families, by state

North Carolina 29
Pennsylvania 23
South Carolina 19
New York 13
Maryland 13
Virginia 7
Maine 4
New Hampshire 3
Rhode Island 3
Massachusetts 2
Connecticut 2

U.S. Census Bureau, «A Century of Population Growth from the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790–1900» (Washington, 1909), table 111, p. 253 — public domain · names carried by at least 100 white persons in 1790.

In print

McKenzie in American newspapers,
1908–1911.

Newspaper page from San Antonio Light And Gazette carrying the name McKenzie
San Antonio Light And Gazette 1910-11-16
Newspaper page from San Antonio Light carrying the name McKenzie
San Antonio Light 1911-11-12
Newspaper page from The San Antonio Light carrying the name McKenzie
The San Antonio Light 1908-10-12

Chronicling America, Library of Congress — digitised newspapers in the public domain · 231,388 pages in all carry the name.

In print

McKenzie in Australian newspapers,
1810s–2010s.

199,394 articles name a Mr, Mrs or Miss McKenzie. The most, 46,802, date from the 1930s. Weighed against how much of each state’s press from the same decades has been digitised, it stands out most in Victoria, at 1.6 times its expected share.

Articles, by state

Victoria 57,581
New South Wales 53,240
Western Australia 26,312
South Australia 25,707
Queensland 24,825
Tasmania 10,021
ACT (Canberra) 1,070
Northern Territory 245

Trove, National Library of Australia (trove.nla.gov.au) · articles in its digitised newspapers that name a Mr, Mrs or Miss McKenzie.

Who carried it

People named McKenzie,
with a public archive behind them.

  • Fay McKenzie
    Fay McKenzie 1918–2019 · film actor
  • Scott McKenzie 1939–2012 · artisan

Wikidata (CC0) · portraits via Wikimedia Commons, shown cropped, in the public domain or CC0.

In the public record

People named McKenzie,
in the records of 7 countries.

Soldiers, farmers, migrants and neighbours who carried the name and left a trace in public archives. Everyone shown here died long ago or was born more than a century ago.

United States5,599 records

5,599 records of the McKenzie name in the United States
  • U.S. Army enlistment records, World War II 1,578
  • New York City birth, marriage and death certificates 1,026
  • Other U.S. records 2,995
  1. Names engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C.
    Example: U.S. war memorial
    War record Douglas N. McKenzie

    Born 1946; from Oceanside, California. U.S. Marine Corps, rifleman; killed in action 1968 in Quang Tri, South Vietnam. Buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, California.

    U.S. National Archives, Defense Casualty Analysis System (public domain); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0)
  2. A United States Selective Service registration card, 1942
    Example: U.S. registration card, 1942
    Military record Earl Douglas McKenzie

    Born 1907 in Tennessee. Enlisted 1942 at Kalamazoo, Michigan; cook from Calhoun County, Michigan. U.S. Army veteran of World War II; died 1988, buried at Fort Custer National Cemetery, Michigan.

    U.S. National Archives, WWII Army Enlistment Records (public domain); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0)
  3. A United States Selective Service registration card, 1942
    Example: U.S. registration card, 1942
    Military record Lester H. McKenzie

    Born 1919 in Mississippi. Enlisted 1942 at Camp Shelby; farm hand from Marion County. U.S. Army veteran of World War II; died 1998, buried at Hurricane Creek Cemetery, Foxworth, Mississippi.

    U.S. National Archives, WWII Army Enlistment Records (public domain); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0)

Showing 3 of 5,599 records for McKenzie in the United States.

Counts: U.S. National Archives, WWII Army Enlistment Records (public domain) · NYC Department of Records & Information Services, Historical Vital Records (NYC Open Data) · U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain) · U.S. National Archives, Castle Garden Immigration Center Collection, Ship Passenger Records (unrestricted) · U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0) · New York State Department of Health, Genealogical Research Death Index · U.S. National Archives, Famine Irish Passenger Records (public domain) · U.S. National Archives, Defense Casualty Analysis System (public domain) · City of Asheville (public domain, PDDL) · Sacramento County, Historic Burials (CC BY 4.0) · New York State, Open NY (police and firefighter memorial rolls). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden, 2009 (public domain); U.S. Selective Service registration card, 1942 (public domain).

Australia10,956 records

10,956 records of the McKenzie name in Australia
  • Victoria passenger lists, 1839–1923 5,861
  • Victoria wills and probate, deaths to 2001 2,242
  • Other Australian records 2,853
  1. An 1829 etching of convicts being rowed out to the prison ship York in Portsmouth Harbour
    Pictured: convicts going on board a prison ship, 1829
    Transportation record Jane McKenzie

    Transported to Van Diemen's Land aboard the Emma Eugenia, sailing from Portsmouth in 1846. Native of Edinburgh, Midlothian. Applied for permission to marry in Van Diemen's Land in 1848. Married 1848 in Hobart, Tasmania, aged 23.

    Libraries Tasmania, Tasmanian Names Index (CC BY 4.0)
  2. An 1829 etching of convicts being rowed out to the prison ship York in Portsmouth Harbour
    Pictured: convicts going on board a prison ship, 1829
    Transportation record Agnes McKenzie

    Transported to Van Diemen's Land aboard the Emma Eugenia, sailing from London in 1850. Native of Greenock, Renfrewshire. Applied for permission to marry in Van Diemen's Land in 1852. Married 1852 in Hobart, Tasmania, aged 22.

    Libraries Tasmania, Tasmanian Names Index (CC BY 4.0)
  3. An 1829 etching of convicts being rowed out to the prison ship York in Portsmouth Harbour
    Pictured: convicts going on board a prison ship, 1829
    Transportation record Catherine McKenzie

    Transported to Van Diemen's Land aboard the Hector, sailing from Woolwich in 1835. Native of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire. Applied for permission to marry in Van Diemen's Land in 1838.

    Libraries Tasmania, Tasmanian Names Index (CC BY 4.0)

Showing 3 of 10,956 records for McKenzie in Australia.

Counts: Public Record Office Victoria (CC BY 4.0) · Libraries Tasmania, Tasmanian Names Index (CC BY 4.0) · Queensland State Archives (CC BY 4.0) · Museums of History NSW – State Archives Collection (CC BY) · National Library of Scotland, War Office Weekly Casualty Lists (public domain) · ACT Government, Transport Canberra and City Services (CC BY 4.0) · State Library of Western Australia (CC BY 4.0) · City of Ballarat, Avenue of Honour Plaques (CC BY 3.0 AU). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Prison-ship in Portsmouth Harbour, with the convicts going on board, etching by Edward William Cooke, 1829, Royal Museums Greenwich (public domain).

Canada6,595 records

6,595 records of the McKenzie name in Canada
  • Nova Scotia Archives name indexes 5,893
  • Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver 214
  • Other Canadian records 488
  1. The first page of an emigration file from Gündlingen, Baden, 1883
    Example: German emigration file, 1883
    Emigration record Ceasar McKenzie

    Left New York in 1783 aboard the L'Abondence, bound for Port Roseway, aged 32.

    Nova Scotia Archives. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Nova Scotia.
  2. A passenger manifest of the S.S. St. Paul, arriving at New York in 1903
    Example: passenger manifest, 1903
    Passenger record Alex McKenzie

    Came to Ontario in 1871 aboard the Scan, bound for Malton, Ontario; Scotch.

    Archives of Ontario. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Ontario.
  3. Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Example: Canadian cemetery
    Burial record Wilfred Lorne McKenzie

    Died 1965, aged 60; buried at St. Vital Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

    City of Winnipeg. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Winnipeg.

Showing 3 of 6,595 records for McKenzie in Canada.

Counts: Nova Scotia Archives. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Nova Scotia. · City of Vancouver. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Vancouver. · City of Calgary. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – City of Calgary. · Veterans Affairs Canada. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada. · City of Winnipeg. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Winnipeg. · Archives of Ontario. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Ontario. · National Library of Scotland, War Office Weekly Casualty Lists (public domain) · Halifax Regional Municipality. Contains information licenced under the Open Government Licence—Halifax. · City of Niagara Falls. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Niagara Falls. · Contains information provided by the City of Waterloo under licence. Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Emigration file, Gündlingen, 1883, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg B 694/1 Nr. 1389 (CC BY 4.0); Passenger manifest of the S.S. St. Paul, New York, 1903 (public domain); Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Halifax, photo by Edgar El (CC BY 3.0).

United Kingdom652 records

652 records of the McKenzie name in the United Kingdom
  • Stirling Council burial records 372
  • War Office casualty lists, 1917–1919, among the dead 135
  • Other British records 145
  1. A First World War roll of honour of the staff of C. & E. Morton Ltd
    Example: roll of honour, 1914–1919
    War record Donald McKenzie

    Born 1879 at Lynemacgregor; farmer. Served in the First World War. Named in the Morayshire roll of honour (1921). Listed among the dead in the War Office casualty list of 1917 (Manitoba Regiment).

    National Library of Scotland, Rolls of Honour (public domain); National Library of Scotland, War Office Weekly Casualty Lists (public domain)
  2. A First World War roll of honour of the staff of C. & E. Morton Ltd
    Example: roll of honour, 1914–1919
    War record Alexander McKenzie

    Born 1890 at Burghead; fisherman. Died 1918. Named in the Morayshire roll of honour (1921). Listed among the dead in the War Office casualty list of 1918 (Shropshire Light Infantry).

    National Library of Scotland, Rolls of Honour (public domain); National Library of Scotland, War Office Weekly Casualty Lists (public domain)
  3. A First World War roll of honour of the staff of C. & E. Morton Ltd
    Example: roll of honour, 1914–1919
    War record William McKenzie

    Born 1884 at Dell; estate carpenter. Served in the First World War. Named in the Morayshire roll of honour (1921). Listed among the dead in the War Office casualty list of 1918 (Hertfordshire Regiment).

    National Library of Scotland, Rolls of Honour (public domain); National Library of Scotland, War Office Weekly Casualty Lists (public domain)

Showing 3 of 652 records for McKenzie in the United Kingdom.

Counts: Stirling Council. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. · National Library of Scotland, War Office Weekly Casualty Lists (public domain) · National Library of Scotland, Rolls of Honour (public domain) · MOLA and HS2, St James's burial ground data. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Example pages, not the records of the people shown: C. & E. Morton Ltd roll of honour, 1914–1919, photo by Adrian S Pye via Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0).

New Zealand252 records

252 records of the McKenzie name in New Zealand
  • Christchurch City cemetery records 189
  • Thames-Coromandel District cemetery records 35
  • Other New Zealand records 28
  1. A page of the burial register of Newtown, Wales, 1858
    Example: burial register, 1858
    Burial record William Rose McKenzie

    Died 1937, aged 60; buried at Bromley Cemetery, Christchurch, Canterbury.

    Christchurch City Council (CC BY 4.0)
  2. A page of the burial register of Newtown, Wales, 1858
    Example: burial register, 1858
    Burial record Sidney Wilfred McKenzie

    Buried in 1976 at Totara Memorial Park Cemetery, Thames-Coromandel District, Waikato, aged 51.

    Thames-Coromandel District Council (CC BY 4.0)
  3. A page of the burial register of Newtown, Wales, 1858
    Example: burial register, 1858
    Burial record Dorothy McKenzie

    Born 1904, died 1993; buried at Rangiora Lawn Cemetery, Canterbury.

    Waimakariri District Council (CC BY 4.0)

Showing 3 of 252 records for McKenzie in New Zealand.

Counts: Christchurch City Council (CC BY 4.0) · Thames-Coromandel District Council (CC BY 4.0) · Marlborough District Council (CC BY 4.0) · National Library of Scotland, War Office Weekly Casualty Lists (public domain) · Waimakariri District Council (CC BY 4.0). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Burial register of Newtown, Montgomeryshire, 1858, National Library of Wales (CC0).

France6 records

6 records of the McKenzie name in France France's national death register, 1970–2001
  1. A page of the death register of Nice, 1930
    Example: French death register, 1930
    Death record Danny Lionel Leslie McKenzie

    Born 1956 in Gabon; died 1990 in Paris.

    Insee, Fichier des personnes décédées (Licence Ouverte)

Showing 1 of 6 records for McKenzie in France.

Counts: Insee, Fichier des personnes décédées (Licence Ouverte). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Death register of Nice, 1930, Archives départementales des Alpes-Maritimes (public domain).

Netherlands5 records

5 records of the McKenzie name in the Netherlands
  • Dutch church registers before 1811 3
  • Dutch civil registers (births, marriages, deaths) 2
  1. A marriage entry in the civil register of Tilburg, 1911
    Example: marriage register, 1911
    Marriage record Allan William Mc Kenzie

    Married in 1946 in Velsen; teacher.

    Open Archives, Noord-Hollands Archief (CC BY 4.0)

Showing 1 of 5 records for McKenzie in the Netherlands.

Counts: Open Archives (CC BY 4.0). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Marriage register, Tilburg, 1911, Regionaal Archief Tilburg (public domain).

Other spellings of this name

The same name, spelled another way.

Spellings that H. B. Guppy (England and Wales, 1890) or the Registrar-General for Ireland (births index of 1890) counted as one name together with McKenzie.

Nearby in the index

Surnames next to McKenzie.

When the index is not enough

This page says where McKenzie is.
A volume says what happened to it.

Every page in the index is free and stays free. The Heritage Volume is the long form: the full paper trail, the arms, the crossing — bound, and yours.

See the McKenzie volume
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