Kenaniah
Masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh has established".
Name Census estimates that about 51 living Americans carry the first name Kenaniah. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kenaniah today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kenaniah births was 2003 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kenaniah. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Kenaniah. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
51
~ 1 in 6,720,673 Americans
Peak year
2003
8 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2016 SSA rank
#10,237
Tracked since 1990
Popularity
Kenaniah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kenaniah from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 21 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kenaniah 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 Kenaniah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kenaniah
The name Kenaniah has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is a biblical name that can be traced back to ancient Israel during the time of the Old Testament, around the 6th century BCE. The name is derived from the Hebrew words "qanan," meaning "to plant" or "to establish," and "Yah," which is a shortened form of the name of God, Yahweh or Jehovah.
Kenaniah was the name of a Levite mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah, one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Nehemiah 10:23-24 lists Kenaniah as one of the Levites who sealed a covenant with God during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, after the return of the Israelites from the Babylonian exile.
In the biblical context, the name Kenaniah may have symbolized the idea of being established or rooted in God's ways, reflecting the planting or establishing aspect of its root word "qanan."
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Kenaniah was a Levite mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah, who lived around the 5th century BCE. However, there are other notable individuals throughout history who bore this name.
One such person was Kenaniah ben Hizkiyah, a Hebrew scholar and grammarian who lived in the 11th century CE. He was a prominent figure in the field of Hebrew linguistics and is known for his contributions to the study of the Hebrew language.
Another Kenaniah of historical significance was Kenaniah ben Yosef, a Jewish philosopher and theologian from the 13th century CE. He was active in Spain during the Golden Age of Jewish culture in that region.
In the 17th century, Kenaniah ben Shalom was a Jewish scholar and Kabbalist who lived in Izmir, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey). He authored several works on Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah.
Lastly, Kenaniah Nagazumi was a Japanese Christian convert and translator who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He played a significant role in the early efforts to translate Christian texts into Japanese and facilitate the spread of Christianity in Japan.
These are just a few examples of individuals named Kenaniah who have left their mark on history, spanning various cultures, time periods, and fields of endeavor.
People
Kenaniah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kenaniah 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
Kenaniah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kenaniah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 51 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kenaniah 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 6,720,673 US residents.
Is Kenaniah a common name?
We classify Kenaniah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 54.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 52 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kenaniah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kenaniah was 2003, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kenaniah is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Kenaniah a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kenaniah 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.
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.