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Kennedy vs Kenyata

American parents have registered 101,120 Kennedys since 1880, against 1,126 Kenyatas. Kennedy is still ahead, with 3,019 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kennedy Kenyata

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 108 years in which either name was published, Kennedy for 97 years and Kenyata for 11 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Kennedy Kenyata
Total US births 101,1201,126
Most in one year 4,68864
Babies in 2025 3,019under 5
Estimated living today 100,0001,100
Median age today 1341
Peak year 20151985
Best rank 58th girls2,283rd girls
Rank in 2025 85thunranked
First recorded 19121971
Girls / boys 93,663 / 7,457820 / 306

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 Kenyatas alive today are over 41; half the Kennedys are over 13. That is 28 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: Kennedy and Kenyata.