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Kennard vs Kent

American parents have registered 69,493 Kents since 1880, against 2,711 Kennards. Kent is still ahead, with 101 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kennard 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 1906, when Kennard had 5 and Kent had 6.

Side by side

  Kennard Kent
Total US births 2,71169,493
Most in one year 552,592
Babies in 2025 7101
Estimated living today 1,80050,000
Median age today 4861
Peak year 19541962
Best rank 1,007th boys136th boys
Rank in 2025 9,714th1,654th
First recorded 19061885
Girls / boys 0 / 2,711171 / 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 Kennards are over 48. That is 13 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: Kennard and Kent.