Kandace
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "woman from Candace".
Name Census estimates that about 5,785 living Americans carry the first name Kandace. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kandace today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kandace births was 1988 (279 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kandace. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
5.8K
~ 1 in 59,249 Americans
Peak year
1988
279 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,281
Tracked since 1945
Census
Kandace in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,357 people with the first name Kandace, which placed it at #3,743 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,743
National first-name rank
People counted
5.4K
5,357 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kandace
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kandace is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kandace described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kandace at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.7% · 3,575
- Black or African American20.5% · 1,098
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 266
- Two or more races4.3% · 229
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 101
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 88
Popularity
Kandace: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kandace from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,955 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kandace by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Kandace during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kandaces live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. Texas, California, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Kandace, while Oregon, Minnesota, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 100 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kandace
The name Kandace is derived from the ancient Greek name Κανδάκη (Kandake), which was the title given to the queen or queen mother of the ancient Nubian Kingdom of Kush, located in what is now Sudan. The Kandakes ruled over the powerful Kingdom of Kush from around the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD.
One of the earliest recorded Kandakes was Amanirenas, who ruled in the 1st century BC and led a rebellion against the invading Roman forces. She was a formidable military leader and is mentioned in ancient Roman historical accounts. Another notable Kandake was Amanishakheto, who ruled in the 1st century AD and is believed to have been the Kandake mentioned in the biblical Acts of the Apostles.
The name Kandace itself is a Hellenized version of the Nubian title Kadake or Kadeketan, which means "the royal woman" or "the mighty woman." It was adopted as a personal name after the fall of the Kingdom of Kush and the subsequent decline of the Kandake title.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Kandace was Kandake, an Ethiopian queen who ruled in the 4th century AD and is mentioned in the ancient Greek text "The Ecclesiastical History" by Socrates Scholasticus.
Another notable Kandace was Kandace Holston Woodson (1875-1924), an African American teacher and activist who was one of the first female African American school principals in the United States.
Kandace Clyde (1885-1976) was an American vaudeville performer and actress who appeared in several early Hollywood films in the 1920s and 1930s.
Kandace Krueger (1932-2015) was an American television and stage actress, best known for her recurring role as Olympia Buchanan on the soap opera "One Life to Live."
Kandace Springs (born 1989) is a contemporary American jazz singer and songwriter who has released several acclaimed albums and has performed with notable artists like Gregory Porter and Ghostface Killah.
People
Kandace + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kandace as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kandace: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kandace?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,785 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kandace going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 59,249 US residents.
Is Kandace a common name?
We classify Kandace as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,315 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kandace most popular?
The single biggest year for Kandace was 1988, when 279 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kandace is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kandace in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,357 people with the name Kandace, or 1.77 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,743 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kandace in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kandace?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kandace appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,354 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kandace?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kandace is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kandace most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kandace in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.7% (3,575 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Kandace in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kandace a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kandace in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Kandace still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kandace in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Kandace can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Kandace?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Kandace, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.