Kern — boys' name

What the Data Says About Kern

The Social Security Administration has registered 744 babies named Kern between 1914 and 2012, spanning 99 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Kern currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 2012. The name reached its historical peak in 1952, when 21 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Kern performed strongest in the 1950s, accumulating 150 births during that ten-year window. Across the 11 decades of recorded activity, Kern shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 5 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by New York. In total, SSA state-level files list Kern in 2 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Kern in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 744 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.