Kendell
From Old English meaning "valley of the river Kent".
Name Census estimates that about 6,292 living Americans carry the first name Kendell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 71.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Kendell today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kendell births was 1995 (167 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kendell. 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 Kendell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.3K
~ 1 in 54,475 Americans
Peak year
1995
167 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,551
Tracked since 1919
Census
Kendell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,235 people with the first name Kendell, which placed it at #3,787 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
#3,787
National first-name rank
People counted
5.2K
5,235 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kendell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kendell is Black at 45.2%. The next largest groups are White (43.0%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Kendell 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 Kendell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.2% · 2,367
- White43.0% · 2,252
- Two or more races5.2% · 273
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 230
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 72
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 41
Gender
Gender distribution for Kendell
Kendell is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 6,719 total registrations, 4,774 (71.1%) were male and 1,945 (28.9%) were female.
Kendell as a male name
- Ranked #3,551 in 2024
- 32 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (129 births)
Kendell as a female name
- Ranked #9,223 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (75 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kendell on both sides of the split. Of the 5,235 people counted with this name, 3,457 were male (66.0%) and 1,778 were female (34.0%).
Popularity
Kendell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kendell from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,500 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kendell 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 Kendell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kendells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. New York, Louisiana, Texas recorded the most babies named Kendell, while Wisconsin, Kentucky, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 80 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kendell
The name Kendell is an English variant of the name Kendall, which has its origins in the Old English language. It is derived from the words "cyne" meaning "royal" and "dæl" meaning "valley" or "dale." The name Kendall was originally a place name referring to the Valley of the King, or the Royal Valley.
In the early medieval period, the name Kendall was used to refer to various locations in England, including areas in Lancashire, Westmorland, and Yorkshire. The earliest recorded use of the name Kendall as a personal name dates back to the 12th century, where it was initially used as a surname for individuals who hailed from these areas.
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Kendall can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. In this document, the name Kendall is mentioned in relation to various landholdings and estates.
Over time, the name Kendall began to transition from being primarily a surname to also being used as a given name. One of the earliest recorded individuals to bear the name Kendall as a first name was Kendall Burnell, an English judge and statesman who lived in the 13th century (c. 1240-1315).
Another notable figure with the name Kendall was Kendall Wroot, an English clergyman and academic who served as the Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge in the 15th century (c. 1400-1470).
In the 16th century, Kendall Higginson (c. 1530-1604) was an English churchman and academic who served as the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.
During the 17th century, Kendall Parker (c. 1610-1670) was an English lawyer and politician who served as a member of the Long Parliament.
In the 18th century, Kendall Haworth (c. 1720-1790) was an English Baptist minister and author known for his religious writings.
While the name Kendall has traditionally been more commonly used as a masculine name, in recent centuries, it has also been adopted as a feminine name, with the variant spelling Kendell becoming increasingly popular.
People
Kendell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kendell 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
Kendell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kendell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,292 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kendell 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 54,475 US residents.
Is Kendell a common name?
We classify Kendell as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,719 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kendell most popular?
The single biggest year for Kendell was 1995, when 167 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kendell is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kendell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,235 people with the name Kendell, or 1.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,787 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 Kendell 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 Kendell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kendell on both sides of the split. Of the 5,235 people counted with this name, 3,457 were male (66.0%) and 1,778 were female (34.0%). 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 Kendell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kendell is Black at 45.2%. The next largest groups are White (43.0%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Kendell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kendell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.2% (2,367 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 Kendell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kendell a male name?
Yes, 71.1% of people registered as Kendell 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 Kendell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kendell 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 Kendell 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 Kendell?
Want to know how many people share the name Kendell? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.