Makenna

About Makenna

Makenna is a modern English form of McKenna, from an Irish and Scottish surname. The surname Mac Cionaodha means “son of Cionaodh,” although the older personal name's deeper origin is uncertain. Pronounced muh-KEN-uh, Makenna became especially familiar in American girls' naming during the early twenty-first century.

Surname roots and related forms

McKenna developed from Mac Cionaodha, a family name based on the given name Cionaodh. Makenna rewrites the opening in a way that makes its usual English pronunciation immediately visible.

Cionaodh is the modern Irish form of Cináed. The older name has been explained through Irish elements associated with birth or esteem and fire, but it may instead be Pictish in origin. The surname connection is clearer than a single literal translation of that older name.

McKenna was rare as a given name before 1980 and grew rapidly during the 1990s. Makenna belongs to the same modern surname-name family, with its own separate popularity history.

Makena, with one N, also exists as an independent Kikuyu name meaning “happy one.” Its similar appearance does not make that meaning the Irish surname's translation. The two traditions are distinct even when their spellings look close.

Makenna Jones and tennis

Makenna Jones won the 2021 NCAA doubles championship with Elizabeth Scotty while playing for the University of North Carolina. They became only the second Carolina doubles team to win a national title.

Jones earned four Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America selections across singles and doubles. Her college career included more than a hundred victories in each discipline, giving her an unusually broad record of team and individual contribution.

She graduated with a degree in exercise and sport science, with an emphasis on sport administration, before continuing in graduate study at Carolina. Her career supplies a contemporary bearer of the exact Makenna spelling in college tennis.

Makenna Marisa and basketball

Basketball player Makenna Marisa gives the name another collegiate sporting connection. At Penn State, she scored 645 points during the 2021–22 season and averaged 22.2 points per game.

Her earlier career at Peters Township High School included a Pennsylvania state championship and a perfect 30–0 senior season. She was named Pennsylvania's Class 6A player of the year, bringing a substantial school record into her college career.

Jones and Marisa show the same first-name spelling in two different sports. Their public records place Makenna among a generation that grew up during the name's rise in American use.

Pronunciation and shorter forms

Makenna has three syllables, muh-KEN-uh, with the emphasis in the middle. The double N does not create an extra sound, and the final A is a light, unstressed vowel.

Kenna could work as an informal shortening drawn from the last two syllables. McKenna preserves the visible surname prefix, while Makenna presents the name as one uninterrupted first-name spelling.

American popularity

Makenna's largest American girls' count was 1,619 births in 2005. Its best rank came in 2010, at #201 with 1,543 births. In 2025 there were 495 girls named Makenna, placing it at #593. Its strongest American period therefore belongs to the first decade of the twenty-first century and the years immediately around it.

How popular is Makenna?

In 2025, Makenna ranked #593 among girls in the United States, with 495 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1982; its largest annual count was 1,619 in 2005. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.