Humanverse

Keena vs Keenan

American parents have registered 18,515 Keenans since 1880, against 2,336 Keenas. Keenan is still ahead, with 149 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Keena against Keenan, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Keena Keenan

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 82 years in which either name was published, Keenan for 80 years and Keena for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Keena Keenan
Total US births 2,33618,515
Most in one year 153726
Babies in 2025 under 5149
Estimated living today 2,20018,000
Median age today 4228
Peak year 19721997
Best rank 848th girls354th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,305th
First recorded 19521942
Girls / boys 2,195 / 141339 / 18,176

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 Keenas alive today are over 42; half the Keenans are over 28. 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: Keena and Keenan.