Kenai
Kenai was given to 377 boys in 2025, #713 among boys’ names; 2,465 Americans have been recorded with it since 1992 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,450 Americans named Kenai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 5 years old and half are between 2 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kenai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kenai?
#713 among boys’ names, 2025
Kenai rose from #2,079 in 2015 to #713 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.04 to 0.22 per 1,000.
383 babies in 2025, the peak
Kenai peaked in 2025, when 383 babies were given it (377 boys, #713 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 327 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 377 | #713 | 0.22 |
| 2024 | 327 | #774 | 0.19 |
| 2023 | 235 | #960 | 0.14 |
| 2022 | 202 | #1,082 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 141 | #1,322 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 144 | #1,274 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 122 | #1,437 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 93 | #1,693 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 98 | #1,627 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 82 | #1,837 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (26)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 68 | #2,079 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 61 | #2,218 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 52 | #2,413 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 37 | #3,082 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 35 | #3,210 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 41 | #2,895 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 37 | #3,140 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 40 | #2,981 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 42 | #2,844 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 33 | #3,275 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 42 | #2,634 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 52 | #2,221 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 9 | #7,557 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 11 | #6,239 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 5 | #10,808 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 5 | #9,150 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kenai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,465 Americans recorded as Kenai, 3% are girls and 97% boys. In 2025 it went to 6 girls and 377 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kenai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kenai, and how old are they?
2,450 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,465 Americans ever recorded as Kenai. The median Kenai alive today is 5 years old; half are between 2 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 933 people named Kenai (83 women and girls, 850 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,036 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 405 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,040 |
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 Kenai born?
The states with the most babies named Kenai are Texas, California and Florida, with 32% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 38 | #725 | 0.6× |
| California | 34 | #767 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 34 | #523 | 1.0× |
| Colorado | 19 | #338 | 1.5× |
| Arizona | 17 | #438 | 1.1× |
| Washington | 16 | #461 | 2.0× |
| North Carolina | 14 | #664 | 0.6× |
| Missouri | 13 | #478 | 0.3× |
| Wisconsin | 12 | #426 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 10 | #888 | 0.6× |
Where Kenai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kenai is most over-represented in Washington: since 1992 it was given 2.0 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 boys’ 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 Kenai 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 61,172 babies since 1880, Kenai is the third most given (4.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 383 of their 678 babies (56%), the 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 Kenai
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 Kenai and names like it
- Compare Kenai and KennyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKenai peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kenai since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Kenai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kenai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.