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Kana vs Kandace

American parents have registered 6,323 Kandaces since 1880, against 890 Kanas. But in 2025 it was Kana that was commoner, 12 babies to 7.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kana against Kandace, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kana Kandace

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 81 years in which either name was published, Kandace for 76 years and Kana for 5 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Kana Kandace
Total US births 8906,323
Most in one year 27279
Babies in 2025 127
Estimated living today 8706,000
Median age today 2337
Peak year 20061988
Best rank 5,086th girls691st girls
Rank in 2025 8,362nd11,932nd
First recorded 19561945
Girls / boys 872 / 186,323 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Kandaces alive today are over 37; half the Kanas are over 23. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Kana and Kandace.