Humanverse

Kennetha vs Kent

American parents have registered 69,493 Kents since 1880, against 556 Kennethas. Kent is still ahead, with 101 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kennetha 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 1991, when Kennetha had 16 and Kent had 365.

Side by side

  Kennetha Kent
Total US births 55669,493
Most in one year 362,592
Babies in 2025 under 5101
Estimated living today 51050,000
Median age today 4761
Peak year 19561962
Best rank 1,760th girls136th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,654th
First recorded 19551885
Girls / boys 556 / 0171 / 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 Kennethas are over 47. That is 14 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: Kennetha and Kent.