Kenley
Kenley is given to both girls and boys: 127 girls and 18 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,638 among girls’ names and #5,312 among boys’, #2,766 among all names counting both); 8,451 Americans have been recorded with it since 1924 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,290 Americans named Kenley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 10 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kenley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kenley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kenley is “a female given name transferred from the surname.”
Shortened from McKenley, variant of McKinley
Habitational from Old English Cena (“a man’s name”) + lēah (“woodland clearing”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kenley?
#1,638 among girls’ names, 2025
Kenley fell from #662 in 2015 to #1,638 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.24 to 0.08 per 1,000.
650 babies in 2012, the peak
Kenley peaked in 2012, when 650 babies were given it (614 girls, #499 among girls’ names). The 145 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 22% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 127 | #1,638 | 18 | #5,312 |
| 2024 | 148 | #1,477 | 13 | #6,650 |
| 2023 | 144 | #1,504 | 28 | #3,942 |
| 2022 | 144 | #1,512 | 25 | #4,234 |
| 2021 | 146 | #1,471 | 19 | #5,023 |
| 2020 | 173 | #1,288 | 22 | #4,489 |
| 2019 | 245 | #1,047 | 23 | #4,410 |
| 2018 | 280 | #949 | 20 | #4,842 |
| 2017 | 368 | #757 | 17 | #5,412 |
| 2016 | 369 | #772 | 22 | #4,547 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 431 | #662 | 17 | #5,405 |
| 2014 | 544 | #563 | 31 | #3,504 |
| 2013 | 548 | #542 | 26 | #3,908 |
| 2012 | 614 | #499 | 36 | #3,143 |
| 2011 | 599 | #494 | 41 | #2,877 |
| 2010 | 596 | #500 | 45 | #2,709 |
| 2009 | 447 | #660 | 25 | #4,112 |
| 2008 | 268 | #993 | 25 | #4,089 |
| 2007 | 152 | #1,521 | 27 | #3,844 |
| 2006 | 126 | #1,674 | 24 | #4,049 |
| 2005 | 118 | #1,684 | 19 | #4,560 |
| 2004 | 102 | #1,865 | 21 | #4,189 |
| 2003 | 94 | #1,937 | 17 | #4,716 |
| 2002 | 91 | #1,943 | 11 | #6,319 |
| 2001 | 62 | #2,495 | 24 | #3,564 |
| 2000 | 65 | #2,383 | 21 | #3,853 |
| 1999 | 59 | #2,449 | 13 | #5,181 |
| 1998 | 45 | #2,905 | 18 | #3,930 |
| 1997 | 24 | #4,442 | 18 | #3,813 |
| 1996 | 24 | #4,384 | 12 | #5,038 |
| 1995 | 19 | #5,120 | 16 | #3,964 |
| 1994 | 15 | #6,154 | 12 | #4,966 |
| 1993 | 15 | #6,096 | 17 | #3,743 |
| 1992 | 5 | #14,348 | 9 | #5,894 |
| 1991 | 15 | #6,089 | 15 | #3,920 |
| 1990 | 9 | #8,843 | 16 | #3,695 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,202 | 18 | #3,268 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,772 | 7 | #6,134 |
| 1987 | 5 | #12,198 | 9 | #4,757 |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,135 | 13 | #3,549 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,764 | 14 | #3,305 |
| 1984 | under 5 | 17 | #2,761 | |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,475 | 5 | #6,794 |
| 1982 | under 5 | 12 | #3,596 | |
| 1981 | under 5 | 5 | #6,800 | |
| 1980 | under 5 | 6 | #5,916 | |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,416 | 10 | #3,946 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,058 | 15 | #2,863 |
| 1977 | under 5 | 17 | #2,607 | |
| 1976 | under 5 | 20 | #2,291 | |
| 1975 | under 5 | 15 | #2,698 | |
| 1974 | under 5 | 17 | #2,407 | |
| 1973 | under 5 | 5 | #5,489 | |
| 1972 | under 5 | 11 | #3,066 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 16 | #2,419 | |
| 1970 | under 5 | 14 | #2,575 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 7 | #3,774 | |
| 1967 | under 5 | 10 | #2,692 | |
| 1966 | under 5 | 5 | #4,257 | |
| 1965 | under 5 | 8 | #3,116 | |
| 1964 | under 5 | 6 | #3,834 | |
| 1961 | under 5 | 8 | #3,234 | |
| 1959 | under 5 | 6 | #3,812 | |
| 1958 | under 5 | 6 | #3,737 | |
| 1957 | under 5 | 9 | #2,918 | |
| 1956 | under 5 | 6 | #3,735 | |
| 1955 | under 5 | 7 | #3,345 | |
| 1953 | under 5 | 8 | #3,041 | |
| 1951 | under 5 | 5 | #3,992 | |
| 1948 | under 5 | 6 | #3,495 | |
| 1938 | under 5 | 8 | #2,762 | |
| 1937 | under 5 | 7 | #3,045 | |
| 1936 | under 5 | 6 | #3,360 | |
| 1935 | under 5 | 29 | #1,264 | |
| 1924 | under 5 | 5 | #4,684 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Kenley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,451 Americans recorded as Kenley, 86% are girls and 14% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kenley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kenley, and how old are they?
8,290 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 8,451 Americans ever recorded as Kenley. The median Kenley alive today is 14 years old; half are between 10 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 7,050 people named Kenley (6,037 women and girls, 1,013 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,367 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 8 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 46 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 172 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 329 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,810 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,920 |
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 Kenley born?
The states with the most babies named Kenley are California, Texas and Indiana, with 60% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Indiana is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 11 | #1,892 | 0.3× |
| Texas | 10 | #2,131 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 10 | #630 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #1,061 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 7 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,362 | 1.2× |
Where Kenley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kenley is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1924 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 Kenley 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 39,315 babies since 1880, Kenley is the second most given (21% of them). In 2025 it was given to 145 of their 796 babies (18%), the third 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 Kenley
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 Kenley and names like it
- Compare Kenley and KinleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKenley peaked in 2012.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kenley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kenley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Kenley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kenley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.