McGheevsMcPheeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“McGhee” and “McPhee” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,752
“McGhee” frequency rank
#37,569
“McPhee” frequency rank
85321
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature McGhee McPhee
Definition A surname from Irish. A surname from Scottish Gaelic.

Letter map: McGhee vs McPhee

Shared letters muted; letters that set McGhee and McPhee apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
McGhee
6 ch
McPhee

Pair insight - McGhee / McPhee

McGhee and McPhee are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - g in “McGhee” becomes p in “McPhee”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85321, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

McGhee is recorded at frequency rank #47,752, classified as aname. McPhee is at rank #37,569, tagged as aname.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 85321, this pair ranks #10,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of McGhee vs McPhee

Shared letters: cehm. Private to "McGhee": g. Private to "McPhee": p.

"McGhee" · 6 letters · shape CCCCVV  ·  "McPhee" · 6 letters · shape CCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • McGheecmghee · mccghee · mcgehe · mcgghee · mcghe · mcghhee · mchgee · mgchee
  • McPheecmphee · mccphee · mchpee · mcpehe · mcphe · mcphhee · mcpphee · mmcphee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "McGhee" for "McPhee" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - g in “McGhee” becomes p in “McPhee”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "McGhee" vs "McPhee" - which ranks higher?
"McPhee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,569 in our English list, against #47,752 for "McGhee". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "McGhee" and "McPhee".

  • Full dictionary entry for "McGhee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "McPhee" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "McGhee" and "McPhee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Magee vs McGhee". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #10,573 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list