Kanye
Kanye was given to 5 boys in 2025, #12,960 among boys’ names; 1,428 Americans have been recorded with it since 2002 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,410 Americans named Kanye and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 17 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kanye by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kanye mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kanye is “a male given name.”
Evidently from Igbo Kanye, although inspiration from other African languages may have contributed. The verb is a reference to Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
/ˈkɑnjeɪ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kanye?
#12,960 among boys’ names, 2025
Kanye fell from #3,934 in 2015 to #12,960 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 14.1 to 2.9 per million.
528 babies in 2004, the peak
Kanye peaked in 2004, when 528 babies were given it (509 boys, #486 among boys’ names). The 5 births of 2025 are under 1% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #12,960 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 14 | #6,326 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 13 | #6,710 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 14 | #6,312 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 12 | #6,893 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 5 | #13,069 | under 0.01 |
| 2019 | 7 | #10,285 | under 0.01 |
| 2018 | 13 | #6,527 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 13 | #6,491 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 17 | #5,426 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (24)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 27 | #3,934 | 0.01 |
| 2014 | 22 | #4,459 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 40 | #2,869 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 35 | #3,203 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 35 | #3,207 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 30 | #3,585 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 64 | #2,128 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 81 | #1,817 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 53 | #2,426 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 101 | #1,504 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 202 | #893 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 509 | #486 | 0.26 |
| 2003 | 87 | #1,490 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 5 | #11,587 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kanye a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,428 Americans recorded as Kanye, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 5 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kanye: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kanye, and how old are they?
1,410 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,428 Americans ever recorded as Kanye. The median Kanye alive today is 21 years old; half are between 17 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 1,173 people named Kanye (45 women and girls, 1,128 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,353 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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 Z | 1997-2012 | 1,210 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 200 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 29,731 babies since 1880, Kanye is the fourth most given (4.8% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 995 babies (<1%), the eighth most given that year.
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 Kanye
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 Kanye and names like it
- Compare Kanye and KaneBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKanye peaked in 2004.
- Illinois’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kanye since 1910.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Kanye.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kanye alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.