Kenya
Kenya was given to 71 girls in 2025, #2,499 among girls’ names; 27,553 Americans have been recorded with it since 1952 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 26,600 Americans named Kenya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 33 years old and half are between 20 and 48.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kenya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kenya mean?
Wiktionary, Norwegian Bokmål section
Kenya is “a female given name, derived from the country name.”
Borrowed from English Kenya, from the name of Mount Kenya. The modern form was recorded in the 19th century by the German missionary and explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf as Kenia and Kegnia. The deeper origin of the mountain name is unknown. One proposed explanation derives Krapf’s forms from Kamba Kĩ-Nyaa or Kamba Kĩlĩma Kĩinyaa. Another connects the name with Kikuyu Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga (“mountain of brightness; mountain of whiteness”), referring to the contrasting dark rock and snow of the mountain. The female given name is derived from the country name. Parallel international adaptations include Norwegian Nynorsk Kenya, Danish Kenya, Swedish Kenya, German Kenia, Dutch Kenia and French Kenya (“Kenya”).
/¹ˈkɛn.ja/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Norwegian Bokmål section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kenya?
#2,499 among girls’ names, 2025
Kenya fell from #894 in 2015 to #2,499 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.17 to 0.04 per 1,000.
1,039 babies in 1973, the peak
Kenya peaked in 1973, when 1,039 babies were given it (894 girls, #275 among girls’ names). The 71 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 71 | #2,499 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 124 | #1,660 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 135 | #1,572 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 166 | #1,383 | 0.10 |
| 2021 | 162 | #1,366 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 190 | #1,208 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 228 | #1,092 | 0.14 |
| 2018 | 242 | #1,060 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 275 | #964 | 0.16 |
| 2016 | 326 | #863 | 0.18 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 309 | #894 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 403 | #702 | 0.23 |
| 2013 | 469 | #602 | 0.27 |
| 2012 | 569 | #534 | 0.32 |
| 2011 | 337 | #803 | 0.19 |
| 2010 | 395 | #716 | 0.22 |
| 2009 | 478 | #631 | 0.26 |
| 2008 | 570 | #541 | 0.30 |
| 2007 | 587 | #534 | 0.31 |
| 2006 | 578 | #523 | 0.30 |
| 2005 | 466 | #610 | 0.25 |
| 2004 | 432 | #632 | 0.24 |
| 2003 | 475 | #582 | 0.26 |
| 2002 | 493 | #553 | 0.27 |
| 2001 | 466 | #559 | 0.26 |
| 2000 | 524 | #508 | 0.29 |
| 1999 | 456 | #552 | 0.26 |
| 1998 | 471 | #535 | 0.27 |
| 1997 | 452 | #527 | 0.26 |
| 1996 | 600 | #425 | 0.34 |
| 1995 | 673 | #394 | 0.38 |
| 1994 | 681 | #377 | 0.38 |
| 1993 | 682 | #376 | 0.38 |
| 1992 | 473 | #509 | 0.26 |
| 1991 | 366 | #616 | 0.20 |
| 1990 | 366 | #615 | 0.19 |
| 1989 | 349 | #608 | 0.19 |
| 1988 | 263 | #713 | 0.15 |
| 1987 | 249 | #726 | 0.14 |
| 1986 | 239 | #742 | 0.14 |
| 1985 | 290 | #641 | 0.17 |
| 1984 | 314 | #582 | 0.19 |
| 1983 | 389 | #500 | 0.23 |
| 1982 | 411 | #496 | 0.24 |
| 1981 | 416 | #492 | 0.25 |
| 1980 | 520 | #421 | 0.31 |
| 1979 | 630 | #358 | 0.39 |
| 1978 | 589 | #360 | 0.38 |
| 1977 | 712 | #330 | 0.46 |
| 1976 | 713 | #317 | 0.49 |
| 1975 | 864 | #281 | 0.59 |
| 1974 | 811 | #294 | 0.55 |
| 1973 | 894 | #275 | 0.61 |
| 1972 | 556 | #384 | 0.37 |
| 1971 | 398 | #484 | 0.24 |
| 1970 | 335 | #554 | 0.19 |
| 1969 | 219 | #672 | 0.13 |
| 1968 | 125 | #928 | 0.08 |
| 1967 | 77 | #1,217 | 0.05 |
| 1966 | 66 | #1,338 | 0.04 |
| 1965 | 49 | #1,606 | 0.03 |
| 1964 | 57 | #1,510 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 32 | #2,110 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 29 | #2,236 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 18 | #3,013 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 19 | #2,858 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 19 | #2,710 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 19 | #2,706 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 13 | #3,395 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,649 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 14 | #3,158 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 11 | #3,593 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #5,982 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kenya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 27,553 Americans recorded as Kenya, 92% are girls and 8% boys. In 2025 it went to 71 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kenya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kenya, and how old are they?
26,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 27,553 Americans ever recorded as Kenya. The median Kenya alive today is 33 years old; half are between 20 and 48.
The 2020 Census counted 22,943 people named Kenya (21,421 women and girls, 1,522 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 26,057 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 216 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 8,180 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 7,060 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,020 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,150 |
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 Kenya born?
The states with the most babies named Kenya are California, Texas and New York, with 30% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 3,075 | #2,939 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 2,211 | #2,783 | 0.9× |
| New York | 1,990 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 1,671 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 1,608 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| Florida | 1,530 | #1,783 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 1,182 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Michigan | 914 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Louisiana | 812 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Alabama | 742 | not ranked | 1.6× |
Where Kenya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kenya is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1952 it was given 2.2 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 Kenya 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 65,564 babies since 1880, Kenya is the most given (42% of them). In 2025 it was given to 71 of their 717 babies (9.9%), 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 Kenya
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 Kenya and names like it
- Compare Kenya and KennaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKenya peaked in 1973.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kenya since 1910.
- The top names of 1973The year the most babies were named Kenya.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Kenya alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.