Kent

Kent is the 799th most common surname in the United States, shared by 42,163 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 7,089.

By the numbers

People: 42,163
Rank: 799th
How common: 1 in 7,089
Per 100,000: 14.1

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

from Old English Cent, from Latin Cantium, from cel-bry *Cantio (compare Old Irish céite), from Proto-Celtic *kantos (“corner, rim”).

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 81.1%
Black, not Hispanic 10.1%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.9%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.9%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Kent

Prince Michael of Kent (born 1942)first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II; grandson of King George V and Queen Mary
William Kent (1684–1748)British painter, landscape architect
Ryan Kent (born 1996)English association football player
Barbara Kent (1907–2011)Canadian actress
Rockwell Kent (1882–1971)American artist
Victoria Kent (1892–1987)Spanish politician
Jean Kent (1921–2013)English actress
Joe Kent (born 1980)American former federal intelligence official, political candidate, army officer

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

Surnames like Kent

Also a first name

Kent has been given to 69,493 American babies as a first name since 1885, peaking in 1962. 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.