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Kendall vs Kennis

American parents have registered 101,883 Kendalls since 1880, against 636 Kennises. Kendall is still ahead, with 1,095 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kendall Kennis

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 1917, when Kendall had 45 and Kennis had 7.

Side by side

  Kendall Kennis
Total US births 101,883636
Most in one year 3,00416
Babies in 2025 1,095under 5
Estimated living today 96,000500
Median age today 2243
Peak year 20121961
Best rank 116th girls2,070th boys
Rank in 2025 328thunranked
First recorded 19061917
Girls / boys 66,533 / 35,35076 / 560

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 Kennises alive today are over 43; half the Kendalls are over 22. That is 21 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: Kendall and Kennis.