Kenly
Kenly is given to both girls and boys: 9 girls and 5 boys were given it in 2025 (#10,503 among girls’ names and #13,010 among boys’, #13,213 among all names counting both); 644 Americans have been recorded with it since 1981 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kenly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kenly?
#10,503 among girls’ names, 2025
Kenly fell from #4,106 in 2015 to #10,503 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 20.2 to 5.6 per million.
45 babies in 2015, the peak
Kenly peaked in 2015, when 45 babies were given it (36 girls, #4,106 among girls’ names). The 14 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 31% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #10,503 | 5 | #13,010 |
| 2024 | 14 | #7,777 | 8 | #9,442 |
| 2023 | 10 | #9,964 | under 5 | |
| 2022 | 14 | #7,841 | 6 | #11,623 |
| 2021 | 13 | #8,265 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | 15 | #7,394 | 6 | #11,333 |
| 2019 | 14 | #7,941 | under 5 | |
| 2018 | 9 | #11,012 | under 5 | |
| 2017 | 31 | #4,532 | 5 | #13,308 |
| 2016 | 18 | #6,782 | under 5 |
Every recorded year (31)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 36 | #4,106 | 9 | #8,398 |
| 2014 | 40 | #3,811 | under 5 | |
| 2013 | 30 | #4,703 | 5 | #13,143 |
| 2012 | 33 | #4,433 | under 5 | |
| 2011 | 34 | #4,302 | 5 | #13,397 |
| 2010 | 35 | #4,252 | under 5 | |
| 2009 | 24 | #5,800 | 9 | #8,689 |
| 2008 | 16 | #7,929 | 5 | #13,632 |
| 2007 | 19 | #6,954 | 6 | #11,697 |
| 2006 | 16 | #7,681 | under 5 | |
| 2005 | 23 | #5,522 | 9 | #8,007 |
| 2004 | 15 | #7,618 | under 5 | |
| 2003 | 15 | #7,399 | 7 | #9,190 |
| 2002 | 14 | #7,625 | under 5 | |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,731 | 7 | #8,785 |
| 2000 | 7 | #12,470 | under 5 | |
| 1999 | 5 | #15,619 | under 5 | |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,276 | under 5 | |
| 1997 | 5 | #14,906 | 6 | #8,736 |
| 1995 | 6 | #12,536 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | under 5 | 5 | #6,801 |
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 Kenly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 644 Americans recorded as Kenly, 84% are girls and 16% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kenly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kenly, and how old are they?
An estimated 638 Americans named Kenly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 10 and 19. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 758 people named Kenly (539 women and girls, 219 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 545 born in the U.S. The Census count is 39% 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).
How common is the spelling Kenly?
Kenly is a less common spelling of Kenley: SSA has recorded 644 Kenly and 8,451 Kenley since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 13,032 babies since 1880, Kenly is the third most given (4.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 14 of their 238 babies (5.9%), again the third 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 Kenly
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 Kenly and names like it
- Compare Kenly and KenleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKenly peaked in 2015.
- North Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kenly since 1910.
- The top names of 2015The year the most babies were named Kenly.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kenly alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.