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Kenichi vs Kennedy

American parents have registered 101,120 Kennedys since 1880, against 281 Kenichis. Kennedy is still ahead, with 3,019 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kenichi against Kennedy, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kenichi Kennedy

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 109 years in which either name was published, Kennedy for 100 years and Kenichi for 9 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Kenichi Kennedy
Total US births 281101,120
Most in one year 224,688
Babies in 2025 under 53,019
Estimated living today 100100,000
Median age today 2813
Peak year 19182015
Best rank 1,596th boys58th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked85th
First recorded 19151912
Girls / boys 0 / 28193,663 / 7,457

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 Kenichis alive today are over 28; half the Kennedys are over 13. That is 15 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: Kenichi and Kennedy.