Humanverse

Kenleigh vs Kenneth

American parents have registered 1,289,312 Kenneths since 1880, against 2,255 Kenleighs. Kenneth is still ahead, with 1,148 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kenleigh against Kenneth, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kenleigh Kenneth

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

Kenneth has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2014, when Kenleigh had 203 and Kenneth had 2,153.

Side by side

  Kenleigh Kenneth
Total US births 2,2551,289,312
Most in one year 20328,145
Babies in 2025 531,148
Estimated living today 2,200779,000
Median age today 1161
Peak year 20141957
Best rank 1,198th girls14th boys
Rank in 2025 3,067th294th
First recorded 19911880
Girls / boys 2,255 / 05,338 / 1,283,974

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 Kenneths alive today are over 61; half the Kenleighs are over 11. That is 50 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: Kenleigh and Kenneth.