McKeevsMcPheeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,371
“McKee” frequency rank
#37,569
“McPhee” frequency rank
66940
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: McKee vs McPhee

Shared letters muted; letters that set McKee and McPhee apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. McKee runs 5 letters (CCCVV) against McPhee's 6 (CCCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
McKee
6 ch
McPhee

Corpus notes: McKee and McPhee

McKee 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

McKee is recorded at frequency rank #29,371, 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 66940, this pair ranks #65,657 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of McKee vs McPhee

Shared letters: cem. Private to "McKee": k. Private to "McPhee": hp.

"McKee" · 5 letters · shape CCCVV  ·  "McPhee" · 6 letters · shape CCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • McKee ← cmkee · mcckee · mceke · mcke · mckkee · mkcee · mmckee
  • McPhee ← cmphee · mccphee · mchpee · mcpehe · mcphe · mcphhee · mcpphee · mmcphee

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "McKee" and "McPhee" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "McKee" or "McPhee"?
"McKee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,371 in our English list, against #37,569 for "McPhee". 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 "McKee" and "McPhee".

  • Full dictionary entry for "McKee" 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 #65,657 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "McKee" and "McPhee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "McGhee vs McPhee". 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 #65,657 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