Humanverse

Kenith vs Kent

American parents have registered 69,493 Kents since 1880, against 1,630 Keniths. Kent is still ahead, with 101 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kenith Kent

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

Kent has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1885 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1914, when Kenith had 8 and Kent had 25.

Side by side

  Kenith Kent
Total US births 1,63069,493
Most in one year 372,592
Babies in 2025 under 5101
Estimated living today 1,10050,000
Median age today 5461
Peak year 19631962
Best rank 1,279th boys136th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,654th
First recorded 19131885
Girls / boys 0 / 1,630171 / 69,322

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 Kents alive today are over 61; half the Keniths are over 54. 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: Kenith and Kent.