Kennedy
Kennedy was given to 2,933 girls in 2025, #85 among girls’ names; 101,120 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 99,600 Americans named Kennedy and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 8 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kennedy by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kennedy mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kennedy is “a female given name transferred from the surname, of modern American usage.” Its etymology gives the senses “head” (ceann) and “ugly” (éidigh) and “head” (ceann).
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
Borrowed from Irish Ó Cinnéidigh (ceann (“head”) + éidigh (“ugly”)) or Scottish Gaelic Ceannaideach (ceann (“head”) + aideach (“ugly”). Compare Kenneth and Irish eitigh (“refuse, reject”).
/ˈkɛnədi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kennedy?
#85 among girls’ names, 2025
Kennedy fell from #58 in 2015 to #85 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 2.5 to 1.8 per 1,000.
4,688 babies in 2015, the peak
Kennedy peaked in 2015, when 4,688 babies were given it (4,523 girls, #58 among girls’ names). The 3,019 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 64% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,933 | #85 | 1.8 |
| 2024 | 2,890 | #89 | 1.8 |
| 2023 | 3,075 | #72 | 1.9 |
| 2022 | 3,077 | #74 | 1.9 |
| 2021 | 3,443 | #70 | 2.1 |
| 2020 | 3,361 | #72 | 2.1 |
| 2019 | 3,692 | #68 | 2.2 |
| 2018 | 3,946 | #59 | 2.3 |
| 2017 | 4,162 | #58 | 2.4 |
| 2016 | 4,341 | #59 | 2.4 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4,523 | #58 | 2.5 |
| 2014 | 4,498 | #54 | 2.5 |
| 2013 | 3,961 | #65 | 2.3 |
| 2012 | 3,389 | #84 | 1.9 |
| 2011 | 3,248 | #91 | 1.8 |
| 2010 | 2,833 | #111 | 1.6 |
| 2009 | 2,863 | #115 | 1.6 |
| 2008 | 2,953 | #115 | 1.6 |
| 2007 | 3,054 | #110 | 1.6 |
| 2006 | 2,904 | #115 | 1.5 |
| 2005 | 2,826 | #118 | 1.5 |
| 2004 | 2,886 | #117 | 1.6 |
| 2003 | 2,774 | #122 | 1.5 |
| 2002 | 2,513 | #136 | 1.4 |
| 2001 | 2,406 | #138 | 1.3 |
| 2000 | 2,390 | #139 | 1.3 |
| 1999 | 1,892 | #165 | 1.1 |
| 1998 | 1,658 | #183 | 0.94 |
| 1997 | 1,624 | #186 | 0.93 |
| 1996 | 1,418 | #208 | 0.81 |
| 1995 | 1,235 | #229 | 0.70 |
| 1994 | 473 | #524 | 0.26 |
| 1993 | 134 | #1,275 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 47 | #2,627 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 33 | #3,325 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 38 | #2,978 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 27 | #3,728 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 15 | #5,449 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 25 | #3,571 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 17 | #4,627 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 9 | #7,242 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,517 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 9 | #6,987 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 9 | #7,160 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #11,172 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,516 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 7 | #8,043 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,362 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,754 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,004 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #6,986 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,204 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,558 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kennedy a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 101,120 Americans recorded as Kennedy, 93% are girls and 7% boys. Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Kennedy every year since 1993. In 2025 it went to 2,933 girls and 86 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kennedy: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kennedy, and how old are they?
99,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 101,120 Americans ever recorded as Kennedy. The median Kennedy alive today is 14 years old; half are between 8 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 77,115 people named Kennedy (70,373 women and girls, 6,742 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 81,473 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 26 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 761 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 578 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,600 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 44,400 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 49,300 |
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 Kennedy born?
The states with the most babies named Kennedy are Texas, California and Florida, with 22% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 272 | #117 | 0.9× |
| California | 221 | #142 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 166 | #105 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 155 | #52 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 143 | #55 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 139 | #55 | 1.4× |
| New York | 126 | #122 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 115 | #77 | 1.3× |
| Michigan | 105 | #59 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 95 | #89 | 0.9× |
Where Kennedy is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kennedy is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1912 it was given 1.4 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 Kennedy 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 124,279 babies since 1880, Kennedy is the most given (81% of them). In 2025 it was given to 3,019 of their 3,500 babies (86%), 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 Kennedy
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 Kennedy and names like it
- Compare Kennedy and KennediBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKennedy peaked in 2015.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kennedy since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kennedy: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2015The year the most babies were named Kennedy.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kennedy alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.