Kenny

Kenny is the 2,143rd most common surname in the United States, shared by 16,474 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 18,100.

By the numbers

People: 16,474
Rank: 2,143rd
How common: 1 in 18,100
Per 100,000: 5.5

Where the name comes from

Origin a given name

From Kenneth or (diminutive form).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Kenny described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 86.3%
Black, not Hispanic 5.5%
Hispanic or Latino 3.3%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.3%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.0%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Kenny

Enda Kenny (born 1951)Irish poliitician (* 1951)
Tom Kenny (born 1962)American actor and comedian
Jason Kenny (born 1988)British cyclist
Laura Kenny (born 1992)British cyclist
Jonjoe Kenny (born 1997)English association football player
Paddy Kenny (born 1978)Irish footballer
Elizabeth Kenny (1880–1952)Australian nurse
Anthony Kenny (1931–2026)British philosopher

People named Kenny with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Kenny

Also a first name

Kenny has been given to 52,479 American babies as a first name since 1908, peaking in 1960. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.