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Kenner vs Kenny

American parents have registered 52,479 Kennys since 1880, against 546 Kenners. Kenny is still ahead, with 161 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kenner against Kenny, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kenner Kenny

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

Kenny has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1908 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2022, when Kenner had 27 and Kenny had 167.

Side by side

  Kenner Kenny
Total US births 54652,479
Most in one year 311,949
Babies in 2025 15161
Estimated living today 52042,000
Median age today 1150
Peak year 20151960
Best rank 3,513th boys169th boys
Rank in 2025 5,861st1,267th
First recorded 19321908
Girls / boys 0 / 546548 / 51,931

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 Kennys alive today are over 50; half the Kenners are over 11. That is 39 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: Kenner and Kenny.