Kendra
Kendra was given to 320 girls in 2025, #849 among girls’ names; 98,788 Americans have been recorded with it since 1936 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 95,200 Americans named Kendra and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 25 and 45.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kendra by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kendra mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kendra is “a female given name originating as a coinage.”
Coined in the latter half of the twentieth century, presumably a blend of Kenneth + Sandra.
/ˈkɛndɹə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kendra?
#849 among girls’ names, 2025
Kendra fell from #341 in 2015 to #849 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.54 to 0.20 per 1,000.
3,863 babies in 1987, the peak
Kendra peaked in 1987, when 3,863 babies were given it (3,841 girls, #77 among girls’ names). The 320 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 320 | #849 | 0.20 |
| 2024 | 415 | #686 | 0.26 |
| 2023 | 381 | #739 | 0.24 |
| 2022 | 420 | #703 | 0.26 |
| 2021 | 460 | #649 | 0.28 |
| 2020 | 539 | #551 | 0.33 |
| 2019 | 521 | #586 | 0.31 |
| 2018 | 625 | #498 | 0.37 |
| 2017 | 741 | #430 | 0.43 |
| 2016 | 964 | #347 | 0.54 |
Every recorded year (90)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 964 | #341 | 0.54 |
| 2014 | 1,271 | #258 | 0.71 |
| 2013 | 1,724 | #189 | 1.0 |
| 2012 | 810 | #386 | 0.46 |
| 2011 | 1,071 | #293 | 0.61 |
| 2010 | 1,497 | #207 | 0.84 |
| 2009 | 1,390 | #239 | 0.76 |
| 2008 | 1,450 | #236 | 0.77 |
| 2007 | 1,702 | #200 | 0.89 |
| 2006 | 1,404 | #244 | 0.74 |
| 2005 | 1,245 | #262 | 0.67 |
| 2004 | 1,199 | #272 | 0.65 |
| 2003 | 1,235 | #259 | 0.68 |
| 2002 | 1,386 | #227 | 0.77 |
| 2001 | 1,496 | #211 | 0.83 |
| 2000 | 1,730 | #187 | 1.0 |
| 1999 | 1,838 | #170 | 1.0 |
| 1998 | 2,035 | #154 | 1.2 |
| 1997 | 2,053 | #153 | 1.2 |
| 1996 | 2,368 | #136 | 1.4 |
| 1995 | 2,372 | #133 | 1.3 |
| 1994 | 2,536 | #126 | 1.4 |
| 1993 | 2,604 | #128 | 1.4 |
| 1992 | 2,673 | #125 | 1.4 |
| 1991 | 2,704 | #118 | 1.4 |
| 1990 | 2,789 | #117 | 1.5 |
| 1989 | 3,230 | #99 | 1.8 |
| 1988 | 3,761 | #80 | 2.1 |
| 1987 | 3,841 | #77 | 2.2 |
| 1986 | 2,759 | #101 | 1.6 |
| 1985 | 1,840 | #154 | 1.1 |
| 1984 | 1,921 | #150 | 1.1 |
| 1983 | 1,608 | #172 | 1.0 |
| 1982 | 1,762 | #163 | 1.0 |
| 1981 | 1,849 | #152 | 1.1 |
| 1980 | 1,816 | #154 | 1.1 |
| 1979 | 2,069 | #137 | 1.3 |
| 1978 | 1,903 | #145 | 1.2 |
| 1977 | 1,773 | #152 | 1.2 |
| 1976 | 1,630 | #157 | 1.1 |
| 1975 | 1,505 | #173 | 1.0 |
| 1974 | 1,490 | #178 | 1.0 |
| 1973 | 1,263 | #204 | 0.87 |
| 1972 | 1,396 | #200 | 0.92 |
| 1971 | 1,482 | #202 | 0.89 |
| 1970 | 1,150 | #267 | 0.66 |
| 1969 | 871 | #307 | 0.52 |
| 1968 | 695 | #330 | 0.42 |
| 1967 | 796 | #305 | 0.48 |
| 1966 | 714 | #332 | 0.42 |
| 1965 | 454 | #444 | 0.26 |
| 1964 | 392 | #491 | 0.21 |
| 1963 | 411 | #477 | 0.21 |
| 1962 | 365 | #508 | 0.19 |
| 1961 | 351 | #520 | 0.17 |
| 1960 | 285 | #588 | 0.14 |
| 1959 | 259 | #617 | 0.13 |
| 1958 | 200 | #698 | 0.10 |
| 1957 | 208 | #690 | 0.10 |
| 1956 | 237 | #622 | 0.12 |
| 1955 | 136 | #831 | 0.07 |
| 1954 | 114 | #900 | 0.06 |
| 1953 | 121 | #843 | 0.06 |
| 1952 | 96 | #959 | 0.05 |
| 1951 | 105 | #878 | 0.06 |
| 1950 | 92 | #930 | 0.05 |
| 1949 | 75 | #1,033 | 0.04 |
| 1948 | 79 | #981 | 0.05 |
| 1947 | 95 | #912 | 0.05 |
| 1946 | 77 | #949 | 0.05 |
| 1945 | 53 | #1,086 | 0.04 |
| 1944 | 33 | #1,415 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 37 | #1,350 | 0.03 |
| 1942 | 33 | #1,424 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 21 | #1,775 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 20 | #1,819 | 0.02 |
| 1939 | 13 | #2,355 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,672 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,588 | under 0.01 |
| 1936 | 8 | #3,249 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kendra a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kendra has been given almost only to girls: 350 boys in 90 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kendra: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kendra, and how old are they?
95,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 98,788 Americans ever recorded as Kendra. The median Kendra alive today is 36 years old; half are between 25 and 45.
The 2020 Census counted 84,524 people named Kendra (84,331 women and girls, 193 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 93,768 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 113 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3,010 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 19,700 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 39,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 23,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,290 |
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 Kendra born?
The states with the most babies named Kendra are Texas, California and Ohio, with 43% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 57 | #557 | 1.0× |
| California | 39 | #781 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 20 | #521 | 1.1× |
| New York | 14 | #1,058 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,209 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 12 | #562 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 10 | #886 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 10 | #948 | 1.0× |
| Arizona | 10 | #656 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #969 | 0.8× |
Where Kendra is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kendra is most over-represented in Colorado: since 1936 it was given 1.5 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 Kendra 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 104,123 babies since 1880, Kendra is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 320 of their 320 babies (100%), again the most given.
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 Kendra
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 Kendra and names like it
- Compare Kendra and KeandraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sKendra peaked in 1987.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kendra since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Kendra: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1987The year the most babies were named Kendra.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kendra alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.