Kemuel
An English variant of a Hebrew name meaning "raised by God".
Name Census estimates that about 576 living Americans carry the first name Kemuel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kemuel today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kemuel births was 2017 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kemuel. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kemuel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
576
~ 1 in 595,060 Americans
Peak year
2017
31 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,368
Tracked since 1970
Census
Kemuel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 583 people with the first name Kemuel, which placed it at #18,471 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
#18,471
National first-name rank
People counted
583
583 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
44.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kemuel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kemuel is Black at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (37.6%) and White (9.4%). 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 Kemuel 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 Kemuel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American44.3% · 258
- Hispanic or Latino37.6% · 219
- White9.4% · 55
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 27
- Two or more races3.3% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 5
Popularity
Kemuel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kemuel from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 205 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kemuel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kemuel 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 Kemuel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kemuels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kemuel
The name Kemuel is of Hebrew origin and can be traced back to the Bible. It is derived from the Hebrew words "kam" meaning "to rise" and "El" meaning "God". The name translates to "raised by God" or "one who is raised by God".
In the Old Testament, Kemuel appears as the name of a prince of the tribe of Ephraim, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. He is mentioned in Numbers 34:24 as one of the tribal leaders appointed by Moses to oversee the division of the Promised Land.
The earliest recorded use of the name Kemuel can be found in the Book of Numbers, which is believed to have been written around the 6th or 5th century BCE. This makes Kemuel one of the oldest recorded names in history.
While not a particularly common name throughout history, there have been a few notable individuals who bore the name Kemuel. One of the earliest was Kemuel ben Shaftan, a prominent Jewish scholar and Talmudist who lived in the 11th century CE in what is now Iraq.
Another notable Kemuel was Kemuel Gifford (1604-1677), an English clergyman and writer who served as the rector of White Roding in Essex. He was a prolific author and published several works on theology and religious subjects.
In the 18th century, Kemuel Harrower (1703-1776) was a Scottish minister and author who served as the minister of the Tron Church in Edinburgh. He was known for his influential sermons and writings on religious topics.
In more recent times, Kemuel Aguilar (1881-1971) was a Mexican politician and diplomat who served as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 1946 to 1948.
Finally, Kemuel Roig (1897-1968) was a Puerto Rican poet and writer who was part of the literary movement known as the "Generation of 1930". He is considered one of the most important figures in Puerto Rican literature of the 20th century.
People
Kemuel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kemuel 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
Kemuel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kemuel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 576 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kemuel 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 595,060 US residents.
Is Kemuel a common name?
We classify Kemuel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 585 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kemuel most popular?
The single biggest year for Kemuel was 2017, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kemuel is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kemuel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 583 people with the name Kemuel, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,471 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 Kemuel 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 Kemuel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kemuel leans strongly male. 571 people counted with this name were male (97.4%), compared with 15 female bearers (2.6%). 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 Kemuel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kemuel is Black at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (37.6%) and White (9.4%). 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 Kemuel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kemuel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.3% (258 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 Kemuel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kemuel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kemuel 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 Kemuel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kemuel 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 Kemuel 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 Americans are named Kemuel?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Kemuel at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.