Kanisha
Kanisha was last recorded in 2024, when 5 babies were given it; 2,603 Americans have been recorded with it between 1971 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,530 Americans named Kanisha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 31 and 42.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kanisha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kanisha?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,430, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
293 babies in 1990, the peak
Kanisha peaked in 1990, when 293 girls were given it, #716 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | #16,430 | under 0.01 |
| 2023 | 8 | #11,681 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,252 | under 0.01 |
| 2018 | 9 | #10,986 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 8 | #12,296 | under 0.01 |
| 2015 | 8 | #12,386 | under 0.01 |
| 2014 | 7 | #13,780 | under 0.01 |
| 2012 | 9 | #11,725 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 9 | #11,731 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 10 | #11,063 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 9 | #12,082 | under 0.01 |
| 2007 | 18 | #7,237 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 12 | #9,586 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 20 | #6,121 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 16 | #7,228 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 20 | #5,915 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 28 | #4,436 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 33 | #3,900 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 38 | #3,478 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 45 | #2,956 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 42 | #3,036 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 81 | #1,831 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 91 | #1,674 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 133 | #1,266 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 149 | #1,185 | 0.08 |
| 1993 | 126 | #1,329 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 143 | #1,218 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 189 | #990 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 293 | #716 | 0.15 |
| 1989 | 102 | #1,445 | 0.06 |
| 1988 | 63 | #1,937 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 66 | #1,781 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 72 | #1,643 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 67 | #1,718 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 84 | #1,392 | 0.05 |
| 1983 | 83 | #1,417 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 69 | #1,663 | 0.04 |
| 1981 | 83 | #1,464 | 0.05 |
| 1980 | 64 | #1,740 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 77 | #1,527 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 56 | #1,808 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 56 | #1,814 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 42 | #2,078 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 18 | #3,684 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 18 | #3,618 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 13 | #4,459 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,876 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kanisha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kanisha has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kanisha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kanisha, and how old are they?
2,530 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,603 Americans ever recorded as Kanisha. The median Kanisha alive today is 36 years old; half are between 31 and 42.
The 2020 Census counted 2,176 people named Kanisha (2,171 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,534 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 332 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,770 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 385 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 51 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Kanisha born?
The states with the most babies named Kanisha are California, Illinois and Texas, with 33% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 177 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 132 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Texas | 132 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Florida | 116 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 106 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 84 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 77 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 60 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Tennessee | 60 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Louisiana | 56 | not ranked | 1.2× |
Where Kanisha is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kanisha is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1971 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Kanisha with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 6,993 babies since 1880, Kanisha is the most given (37% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kanisha
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Kanisha and names like it
- Compare Kanisha and KaneshaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKanisha peaked in 1990.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kanisha since 1910.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Kanisha.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kanisha alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.