Humanverse

Kendale vs Kendall

American parents have registered 101,883 Kendalls since 1880, against 1,036 Kendales. Kendall is still ahead, with 1,095 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kendale against Kendall, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kendale Kendall

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

Kendall has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1906 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1977, when Kendale had 15 and Kendall had 331.

Side by side

  Kendale Kendall
Total US births 1,036101,883
Most in one year 443,004
Babies in 2025 81,095
Estimated living today 1,00096,000
Median age today 2922
Peak year 19962012
Best rank 2,218th boys116th girls
Rank in 2025 8,910th328th
First recorded 19631906
Girls / boys 55 / 98166,533 / 35,350

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 Kendales alive today are over 29; half the Kendalls are over 22. That is 7 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: Kendale and Kendall.