Humanverse

Kendall vs Kenleigh

American parents have registered 101,883 Kendalls since 1880, against 2,255 Kenleighs. Kendall is still ahead, with 1,095 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kendall Kenleigh

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 2017, when Kendall had 1,654 and Kenleigh had 132.

Side by side

  Kendall Kenleigh
Total US births 101,8832,255
Most in one year 3,004203
Babies in 2025 1,09553
Estimated living today 96,0002,200
Median age today 2211
Peak year 20122014
Best rank 116th girls1,198th girls
Rank in 2025 328th3,067th
First recorded 19061991
Girls / boys 66,533 / 35,3502,255 / 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 Kendalls alive today are over 22; half the Kenleighs are over 11. That is 11 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: Kendall and Kenleigh.