Meaning and history
From a Scottish surname, an Anglicized form of Mac Fhionnlaigh, derived from the given name Fionnlagh. A notable bearer was the American president William McKinley (1843–1901). In the United States, McKinley was mainly used as a masculine given name in the late 19th century and most of the 20th, with peaks around the president’s election and assassination, but in the 1990s it began to rise for girls, likely influenced by feminine names such as Mackenzie and McKenna.
20062006: 274 births, rank #952
2007: 259 births, rank #1,019
2008: 309 births, rank #898
2009: 376 births, rank #755
2010: 526 births, rank #556
20112011: 675 births, rank #450
2012: 682 births, rank #457
2013: 792 births, rank #391
2014: 862 births, rank #379
2015: 860 births, rank #379
20162016: 759 births, rank #428
2017: 730 births, rank #437
2018: 718 births, rank #447
2019: 615 births, rank #512
2020: 536 births, rank #554
20212021: 563 births, rank #543
2022: 453 births, rank #651
2023: 461 births, rank #635
2024: 381 births, rank #740
20252025: 393 births, rank #712
McKinley rose from #740 to #714 for girls between 2024 and 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2014, with 862 births.