Kendi
Kendi was given to 10 girls in 2025, #9,782 among girls’ names; 668 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kendi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kendi?
#9,782 among girls’ names, 2025
Kendi fell from #9,229 in 2015 to #9,782 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 6.7 to 6.2 per million.
31 babies in 2007, the peak
Kendi peaked in 2007, when 31 girls were given it, #4,749 among girls’ names. The 10 births of 2025 are 32% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | #9,782 | 6.2 |
| 2024 | 10 | #9,902 | 6.2 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,752 | 5.6 |
| 2022 | 12 | #8,789 | 7.3 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,649 | 4.9 |
| 2020 | 17 | #6,778 | 10.5 |
| 2019 | 15 | #7,533 | 8.9 |
| 2018 | 21 | #5,901 | 12.3 |
| 2017 | 13 | #8,546 | 7.5 |
| 2016 | 7 | #13,625 | 4.0 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 12 | #9,229 | 6.7 |
| 2014 | 10 | #10,546 | 5.6 |
| 2013 | 18 | #6,882 | 10.3 |
| 2012 | 8 | #12,812 | 4.5 |
| 2011 | 13 | #8,907 | 7.4 |
| 2010 | 14 | #8,504 | 7.9 |
| 2009 | 13 | #9,150 | 7.1 |
| 2008 | 22 | #6,252 | 11.6 |
| 2007 | 31 | #4,749 | 16.1 |
| 2006 | 13 | #9,000 | 6.8 |
| 2005 | 20 | #6,134 | 10.8 |
| 2004 | 12 | #8,982 | 6.5 |
| 2003 | 16 | #7,052 | 8.8 |
| 2002 | 11 | #9,157 | 6.1 |
| 2001 | 14 | #7,528 | 7.8 |
| 2000 | 10 | #9,531 | 5.5 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,699 | 5.1 |
| 1997 | 13 | #7,067 | 7.5 |
| 1996 | 6 | #12,637 | 3.4 |
| 1995 | 8 | #10,037 | 4.5 |
| 1994 | 11 | #7,874 | 6.2 |
| 1993 | 14 | #6,428 | 7.7 |
| 1992 | 9 | #9,101 | 4.9 |
| 1991 | 9 | #8,955 | 4.8 |
| 1990 | 9 | #8,840 | 4.7 |
| 1989 | 10 | #7,719 | 5.4 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,769 | 3.9 |
| 1987 | 11 | #6,531 | 6.3 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,000 | 4.1 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,914 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,728 | 4.8 |
| 1983 | 15 | #4,777 | 9.0 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,358 | 7.7 |
| 1981 | 8 | #7,741 | 4.8 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,650 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 18 | #4,125 | 11.2 |
| 1978 | 14 | #4,797 | 9.1 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,570 | 5.9 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,668 | 4.8 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,751 | 3.4 |
| 1974 | 11 | #5,156 | 7.5 |
| 1972 | 8 | #6,237 | 5.3 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,933 | 4.2 |
| 1970 | 10 | #5,219 | 5.7 |
| 1969 | 7 | #6,252 | 4.1 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,275 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,034 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kendi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 668 Americans recorded as Kendi, 96% are girls and 4% boys. In 2025 it went to 10 girls; SSA lists no boys 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 Kendi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kendi, and how old are they?
An estimated 653 Americans named Kendi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 12 and 39. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 665 people named Kendi (619 women and girls, 46 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 572 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 25,845 babies since 1880, Kendi is the seventh most given (2.6% of them). In 2025 it was given to 10 of their 495 babies (2.0%), the fifth 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 Kendi
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 Kendi and names like it
- Compare Kendi and KennediBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKendi peaked in 2007.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kendi since 1910.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Kendi.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kendi alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.