Kush
Kush was given to 18 boys in 2025, #5,318 among boys’ names; 1,221 Americans have been recorded with it since 1980 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,200 Americans named Kush and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 14 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kush by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kush?
#5,318 among boys’ names, 2025
Kush fell from #3,275 in 2015 to #5,318 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 18.3 to 10.5 per million.
65 babies in 2005, the peak
Kush peaked in 2005, when 65 boys were given it, #1,953 among boys’ names. The 18 births of 2025 are 28% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 18 | #5,318 | 10.5 |
| 2024 | 22 | #4,640 | 12.8 |
| 2023 | 16 | #5,810 | 9.4 |
| 2022 | 21 | #4,789 | 12.0 |
| 2021 | 16 | #5,676 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 22 | #4,495 | 12.7 |
| 2019 | 18 | #5,263 | 10.0 |
| 2018 | 18 | #5,222 | 9.9 |
| 2017 | 24 | #4,279 | 13.0 |
| 2016 | 22 | #4,556 | 11.6 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 35 | #3,275 | 18.3 |
| 2014 | 33 | #3,342 | 17.2 |
| 2013 | 33 | #3,308 | 17.4 |
| 2012 | 42 | #2,849 | 22.1 |
| 2011 | 49 | #2,529 | 25.8 |
| 2010 | 33 | #3,349 | 17.2 |
| 2009 | 45 | #2,732 | 22.7 |
| 2008 | 45 | #2,739 | 22.1 |
| 2007 | 40 | #2,953 | 19.3 |
| 2006 | 42 | #2,770 | 20.4 |
| 2005 | 65 | #1,953 | 32.5 |
| 2004 | 57 | #2,085 | 28.7 |
| 2003 | 63 | #1,875 | 31.9 |
| 2002 | 47 | #2,232 | 24.2 |
| 2001 | 42 | #2,364 | 21.6 |
| 2000 | 38 | #2,503 | 19.3 |
| 1999 | 47 | #2,043 | 24.5 |
| 1998 | 42 | #2,178 | 22.0 |
| 1997 | 32 | #2,522 | 17.0 |
| 1996 | 34 | #2,354 | 17.9 |
| 1995 | 26 | #2,805 | 13.7 |
| 1994 | 15 | #4,197 | 7.8 |
| 1993 | 28 | #2,613 | 14.3 |
| 1992 | 13 | #4,464 | 6.5 |
| 1991 | 18 | #3,398 | 8.9 |
| 1990 | 11 | #4,853 | 5.4 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,622 | 3.5 |
| 1988 | 5 | #7,966 | 2.6 |
| 1987 | 9 | #4,771 | 4.8 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,682 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 8 | #4,952 | 4.3 |
| 1983 | 6 | #5,898 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,256 | 3.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kush a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kush has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kush: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kush, and how old are they?
1,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,221 Americans ever recorded as Kush. The median Kush alive today is 21 years old; half are between 14 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 1,410 people named Kush (25 women and girls, 1,385 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,096 born in the U.S. The Census count is 29% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 6 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 179 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 717 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 296 |
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 Kush born?
The states with the most babies named Kush are New Jersey, California and Illinois, with 73% of its births recorded by state since 1910; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | 146 | not ranked | 4.2× |
| California | 72 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Illinois | 58 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 39 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Texas | 38 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 10 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Florida | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Massachusetts | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Kush is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kush is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1980 it was given 4.2 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 boys’ 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 Kush 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,368 babies since 1880, Kush is the most given (89% of them). In 2025 it was given to 18 of their 23 babies (78%), 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 Kush
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 Kush and names like it
- Compare Kush and KhushBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKush peaked in 2005.
- New Jersey’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kush since 1910.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Kush.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kush alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.