Kensley
Kensley was given to 367 girls in 2025, #742 among girls’ names; 9,285 Americans have been recorded with it since 1987 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,220 Americans named Kensley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 6 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kensley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kensley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kensley is “a female given name transferred from the surname.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kensley?
#742 among girls’ names, 2025
Kensley fell from #639 in 2015 to #742 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.25 to 0.23 per 1,000.
749 babies in 2018, the peak
Kensley peaked in 2018, when 749 babies were given it (738 girls, #424 among girls’ names). The 383 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 51% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 367 | #742 | 0.23 |
| 2024 | 378 | #745 | 0.23 |
| 2023 | 374 | #754 | 0.23 |
| 2022 | 485 | #614 | 0.30 |
| 2021 | 544 | #563 | 0.33 |
| 2020 | 680 | #454 | 0.42 |
| 2019 | 656 | #477 | 0.39 |
| 2018 | 738 | #424 | 0.43 |
| 2017 | 648 | #480 | 0.38 |
| 2016 | 595 | #523 | 0.34 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 446 | #639 | 0.25 |
| 2014 | 480 | #606 | 0.27 |
| 2013 | 443 | #636 | 0.25 |
| 2012 | 380 | #729 | 0.22 |
| 2011 | 319 | #830 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 240 | #1,043 | 0.14 |
| 2009 | 184 | #1,316 | 0.10 |
| 2008 | 173 | #1,383 | 0.09 |
| 2007 | 131 | #1,685 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 81 | #2,337 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 66 | #2,588 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 75 | #2,315 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 67 | #2,451 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 69 | #2,339 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 51 | #2,857 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 41 | #3,300 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 33 | #3,668 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 38 | #3,258 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 36 | #3,265 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 28 | #3,882 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 18 | #5,315 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,852 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 13 | #6,833 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 11 | #7,769 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,417 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,695 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,166 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #11,037 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,351 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kensley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 9,285 Americans recorded as Kensley, 96% are girls and 4% boys. In 2025 it went to 367 girls and 16 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kensley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kensley, and how old are they?
9,220 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 9,285 Americans ever recorded as Kensley. The median Kensley alive today is 9 years old; half are between 6 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 5,914 people named Kensley (5,573 women and girls, 341 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,496 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 155 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,090 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 6,970 |
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 Kensley born?
The states with the most babies named Kensley are Texas, Georgia and Florida, with 29% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 35 | #851 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 35 | #297 | 2.1× |
| Florida | 25 | #846 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 20 | #541 | 0.7× |
| Alabama | 19 | #256 | 3.9× |
| California | 19 | #1,298 | 0.3× |
| Michigan | 19 | #450 | 0.8× |
| Louisiana | 18 | #245 | 2.0× |
| New York | 17 | #926 | 0.3× |
| South Carolina | 14 | #359 | 2.4× |
Where Kensley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kensley is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1987 it was given 3.9 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 Kensley 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 12,259 babies since 1880, Kensley is the most given (76% of them). In 2025 it was given to 383 of their 501 babies (76%), 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 Kensley
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 Kensley and names like it
- Compare Kensley and KensleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKensley peaked in 2018.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kensley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Kensley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Kensley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kensley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.