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Kemper vs Kemya

American parents have registered 1,899 Kempers since 1880, against 605 Kemyas. Kemper is still ahead, with 35 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kemper against Kemya, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kemper 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 100 years in which either name was published, Kemper for 95 years and Kemya for 5 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Kemper Kemya
Total US births 1,899605
Most in one year 7753
Babies in 2025 35under 5
Estimated living today 1,600600
Median age today 1517
Peak year 20092009
Best rank 1,990th boys3,161st girls
Rank in 2025 6,143rdunranked
First recorded 19121998
Girls / boys 301 / 1,598605 / 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 Kemyas alive today are over 17; half the Kempers are over 15. That is 2 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: Kemper and Kemya.