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Kemp vs Kemya

American parents have registered 1,306 Kemps since 1880, against 605 Kemyas. Kemp is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kemp against Kemya, 1880 to 2025 0 15 30 45 60 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kemp Kemya

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 112 years in which either name was published, Kemp for 89 years and Kemya for 23 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Kemp Kemya
Total US births 1,306605
Most in one year 3153
Babies in 2025 20under 5
Estimated living today 850600
Median age today 4717
Peak year 19572009
Best rank 1,411th boys3,161st girls
Rank in 2025 4,857thunranked
First recorded 18981998
Girls / boys 0 / 1,306605 / 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 Kemps alive today are over 47; half the Kemyas are over 17. That is 30 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: Kemp and Kemya.