Kennadie
A feminine variant of Kennedy meaning "misshapen head" or "ugly head".
Name Census estimates that about 716 living Americans carry the first name Kennadie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kennadie today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kennadie births was 2010 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kennadie. 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 Kennadie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
716
~ 1 in 478,707 Americans
Peak year
2010
69 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2022 SSA rank
#8,791
Tracked since 1995
Census
Kennadie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 609 people with the first name Kennadie, which placed it at #17,887 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
#17,887
National first-name rank
People counted
609
609 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kennadie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kennadie is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (19.4%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Kennadie 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 Kennadie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.5% · 405
- Black or African American19.4% · 118
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 43
- Two or more races5.6% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 4
Popularity
Kennadie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kennadie from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 338 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kennadie 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 Kennadie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kennadies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, California, Indiana recorded the most babies named Kennadie, while Utah, Tennessee, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kennadie
The name Kennadie is a modern variant of the traditional Scottish name Kennedy. It likely originated as an anglicized form of the Gaelic surname Ceannaidigh, derived from the words "ceann" meaning head and "aidh" meaning armored or hardy. The Kennedys were a powerful clan in Ayrshire, Scotland during the Middle Ages.
While the name Kennedy has deep historical roots tracing back to the 13th century, the spelling variation Kennadie is relatively new and does not appear in historical records until the late 20th century. It may have emerged as a feminized and more phonetic form of the original surname.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kennadie can be found in the 1994 book "The Girl's Name Book" by Barbara J. Sykes, which lists it as a variation of Kennedy.
As for notable historical figures with the name Kennedy, they include John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States (1917-1963), his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994), and their daughter Caroline Kennedy (born 1957). Other famous Kennedys include Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), a U.S. Attorney General and senator, and his son Joseph P. Kennedy II (born 1952), a former U.S. Congressman.
While the name Kennadie itself does not have a long historical lineage, its connection to the Kennedy clan and their prominent role in American politics and culture has likely contributed to its popularity as a modern given name.
People
Kennadie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kennadie 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
Kennadie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kennadie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 716 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kennadie 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 478,707 US residents.
Is Kennadie a common name?
We classify Kennadie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 724 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kennadie most popular?
The single biggest year for Kennadie was 2010, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kennadie is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kennadie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 609 people with the name Kennadie, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,887 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 Kennadie 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 Kennadie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kennadie appears almost entirely female. Of the 608 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kennadie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kennadie is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (19.4%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Kennadie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kennadie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (405 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 Kennadie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kennadie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kennadie 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 Kennadie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kennadie 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 Kennadie 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 have Kennadie as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Kennadie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.