Kenan
Kenan was given to 184 boys in 2025, #1,148 among boys’ names; 4,675 Americans have been recorded with it since 1947 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,530 Americans named Kenan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 8 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kenan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kenan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kenan is “a male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.”
Borrowed from Hebrew קֵינָן (qēnå̄n).
Alternatively, possibly a variant of Keenan, from Irish Cianán, a diminutive of Cian.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kenan?
#1,148 among boys’ names, 2025
Kenan rose from #1,673 in 2015 to #1,148 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.05 to 0.11 per 1,000.
187 babies in 2024, the peak
Kenan peaked in 2024, when 187 boys were given it, #1,134 among boys’ names. The 184 births of 2025 are 98% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 184 | #1,148 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 187 | #1,134 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 143 | #1,332 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 168 | #1,194 | 0.10 |
| 2021 | 132 | #1,389 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 135 | #1,330 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 168 | #1,161 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 135 | #1,337 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 98 | #1,628 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 106 | #1,559 | 0.06 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 94 | #1,673 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 110 | #1,480 | 0.06 |
| 2013 | 73 | #1,925 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 103 | #1,549 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 129 | #1,324 | 0.07 |
| 2010 | 88 | #1,730 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 99 | #1,610 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 121 | #1,405 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 104 | #1,521 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 104 | #1,472 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 107 | #1,394 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 94 | #1,461 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 98 | #1,377 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 114 | #1,210 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 98 | #1,328 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 106 | #1,246 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 115 | #1,143 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 103 | #1,196 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 136 | #968 | 0.07 |
| 1996 | 79 | #1,362 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 82 | #1,297 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 56 | #1,630 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 51 | #1,707 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 70 | #1,351 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 37 | #2,029 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 41 | #1,880 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 25 | #2,569 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 35 | #1,890 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 36 | #1,814 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 40 | #1,628 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 34 | #1,775 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 38 | #1,590 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 33 | #1,731 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 36 | #1,665 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 35 | #1,680 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 38 | #1,580 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 39 | #1,517 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 43 | #1,421 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 44 | #1,385 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 31 | #1,693 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 29 | #1,729 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 28 | #1,729 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 15 | #2,559 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 8 | #3,802 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 9 | #3,526 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 12 | #2,799 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 12 | #2,620 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,438 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 7 | #3,409 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 14 | #2,179 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 19 | #1,836 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 12 | #2,487 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 12 | #2,478 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 12 | #2,448 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 14 | #2,290 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 9 | #2,940 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 9 | #2,930 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 12 | #2,435 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 10 | #2,673 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 7 | #3,306 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,091 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #3,975 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #4,009 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kenan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kenan has been given almost only to boys: 30 girls in 73 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kenan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kenan, and how old are they?
4,530 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 4,675 Americans ever recorded as Kenan. The median Kenan alive today is 19 years old; half are between 8 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 3,949 people named Kenan (151 women and girls, 3,798 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,661 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 80 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 317 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 708 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,710 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,720 |
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 Kenan born?
The states with the most babies named Kenan are California, New York and North Carolina, with 39% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 20 | #1,060 | 0.5× |
| New York | 19 | #758 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 14 | #665 | 2.2× |
| Texas | 14 | #1,383 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 11 | #697 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 9 | #903 | 1.0× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #736 | 0.3× |
| Washington | 8 | #769 | 0.3× |
| Virginia | 7 | #933 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 5 | #1,976 | 0.7× |
Where Kenan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kenan is most over-represented in North Carolina: since 1947 it was given 2.2 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 Kenan 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 84,387 babies since 1880, Kenan is the sixth most given (5.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 184 of their 618 babies (30%), 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 Kenan
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 Kenan and names like it
- Compare Kenan and KenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKenan peaked in 2024.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kenan since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Kenan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Kenan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kenan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.