Kem
A French derivative of the Greek name Kyriakos meaning "lord" or "master".
Name Census estimates that about 830 living Americans carry the first name Kem. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 65.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Kem today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kem births was 1956 (85 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kem. 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
830
~ 1 in 412,957 Americans
Peak year
1956
85 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2005 SSA rank
#10,358
Tracked since 1942
Census
Kem in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,164 people with the first name Kem, which placed it at #11,155 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
#11,155
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,164 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kem
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kem is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (30.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.9%). 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 Kem 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 Kem at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.7% · 614
- Black or African American30.1% · 350
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.9% · 115
- Two or more races4.1% · 48
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Kem
Kem is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,033 total registrations, 680 (65.8%) were male and 353 (34.2%) were female.
Kem as a male name
- Ranked #10,824 in 2005
- 6 male births in 2005
- Peak: 1956 (65 births)
Kem as a female name
- Ranked #10,358 in 1977
- 5 female births in 1977
- Peak: 1962 (31 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kem on both sides of the split. Of the 1,163 people counted with this name, 719 were male (61.8%) and 444 were female (38.2%).
Popularity
Kem: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kem from the 1940s through to the 2000s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 434 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kem 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 Kem during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kems live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, Indiana, Missouri recorded the most babies named Kem, while California, Alabama, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kem
The given name Kem has its origins in the ancient Egyptian language, where it was derived from the word "kem," which means "black." This name dates back to the Old Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, around the 3rd millennium BCE, and was likely used to describe individuals with dark complexions or black hair.
In ancient Egyptian texts and hieroglyphic inscriptions, the name Kem appears as a personal name, often associated with individuals of high social status or those who held important positions within the pharaonic society. One notable example is Kem, the son of Pharaoh Khufu (also known as Cheops), who was a prince and a high-ranking official during the 4th Dynasty, around 2500 BCE.
Another historical figure bearing the name Kem was an ancient Egyptian architect and engineer who lived during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser in the 27th century BCE. He is credited with designing and overseeing the construction of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, one of the earliest monumental stone structures in Egypt.
Moving forward in time, the name Kem also appears in Coptic Christian texts from the Byzantine era in Egypt. One notable bearer of this name was Saint Kem, also known as Saint Kem the Black, who lived in the 5th century CE and was renowned for his asceticism and spiritual wisdom.
In the Islamic era, the name Kem was sometimes used as a shortened form of the Arabic name Kamal or Kemal, which means "perfection" or "completion." One famous bearer of this name was Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of modern Turkey, who was born in 1881 and died in 1938.
Another notable figure with the name Kem was Kem Sokha, a Cambodian politician and activist who served as the president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party from 2012 to 2017. He was born in 1953 and has been a prominent figure in Cambodian politics for several decades.
While the name Kem has ancient roots in Egyptian culture, it has been adopted and used across various regions and cultures throughout history, often carrying meanings related to beauty, blackness, or perfection.
People
Kem + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kem 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
Kem: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kem?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 830 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kem 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 412,957 US residents.
Is Kem a common name?
We classify Kem as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,033 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kem most popular?
The single biggest year for Kem was 1956, when 85 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kem is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kem in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,164 people with the name Kem, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,155 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 Kem 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 Kem?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kem on both sides of the split. Of the 1,163 people counted with this name, 719 were male (61.8%) and 444 were female (38.2%). 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 Kem?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kem is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (30.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.9%). 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 Kem most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kem in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.7% (614 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 Kem in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kem a male name?
Yes, 65.8% of people registered as Kem in the SSA data are male. 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 Kem still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kem 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 Kem 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 common is the name Kem?
See how many people have the name Kem on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.