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Kenard vs Kenny

American parents have registered 52,479 Kennys since 1880, against 776 Kenards. Kenny is still ahead, with 161 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kenard against Kenny, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kenard Kenny

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 116 years in which either name was published, Kenny for 115 years and Kenard for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Kenard Kenny
Total US births 77652,479
Most in one year 261,949
Babies in 2025 under 5161
Estimated living today 66042,000
Median age today 3750
Peak year 19911960
Best rank 2,606th boys169th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,267th
First recorded 19191908
Girls / boys 0 / 776548 / 51,931

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 Kennys alive today are over 50; half the Kenards are over 37. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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