Kenney
A masculine name of Irish origin derived from Cinaed, meaning "born of fire".
Name Census estimates that about 1,869 living Americans carry the first name Kenney. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kenney today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kenney births was 1960 (94 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kenney. 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
1.9K
~ 1 in 183,389 Americans
Peak year
1960
94 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2020 SSA rank
#10,108
Tracked since 1899
Census
Kenney in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,440 people with the first name Kenney, which placed it at #9,583 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
#9,583
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,440 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kenney
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kenney is White at 49.8%. The next largest groups are Black (27.8%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Kenney 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 Kenney at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.8% · 717
- Black or African American27.8% · 400
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 128
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.7% · 125
- Two or more races3.9% · 56
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Kenney
Out of the 2,505 babies given the name Kenney since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Kenney as a male name
- Ranked #10,108 in 2020
- 7 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1960 (94 births)
Kenney as a female name
- Ranked #10,365 in 1977
- 5 female births in 1977
- Peak: 1977 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kenney leans strongly male. 1,346 people counted with this name were male (93.9%), compared with 88 female bearers (6.1%).
Popularity
Kenney: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kenney from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 507 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kenney 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 Kenney during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kenneys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Kenney, while North Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kenney
The name Kenney is an English variant of the name Kennedy, which has its origins in the Gaelic language. The name is derived from the Irish Gaelic surname Ó Cendubháin, meaning "descendant of Cendubhán." Cendubhán is a compound word composed of the elements "cenn" meaning "head" or "chief" and "dubhán" meaning "little dark one."
The name Kenney likely emerged as an anglicized spelling of the Irish surname during the Middle Ages when it was common for Irish names to be adapted to English spellings and pronunciations. The earliest recorded instances of the name Kenney can be found in historical records from Ireland dating back to the 16th century.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Kenney was Sir John Kenney (1780-1849), an English dramatist and writer known for his plays and comedies. Another prominent figure was James Kenney (1781-1849), an English actor and playwright who wrote several successful plays in the early 19th century.
In the United States, one of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kenney was Michael Kenney (1768-1848), an Irish-born soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later became a prominent landowner and politician in Pennsylvania.
Another notable individual with the name Kenney was James Fitzmaurice Kenney (1858-1927), an Irish-born American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In more recent times, William Kenney (1909-1992) was an American author and journalist who wrote several books on crime and organized crime, including "The Brinks Job" and "Gonzalo: The Life of a Smuggler."
Overall, the name Kenney has a rich history rooted in Irish and Gaelic culture, with its earliest recorded instances dating back to the Middle Ages. While it has evolved from its Gaelic origins, the name has maintained a presence throughout history, with notable individuals bearing this name in various fields.
People
Kenney + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kenney 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
Kenney: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kenney?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,869 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kenney 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 183,389 US residents.
Is Kenney a common name?
We classify Kenney as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,505 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kenney most popular?
The single biggest year for Kenney was 1960, when 94 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kenney is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kenney in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,440 people with the name Kenney, or 0.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,583 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 Kenney 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 Kenney?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kenney leans strongly male. 1,346 people counted with this name were male (93.9%), compared with 88 female bearers (6.1%). 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 Kenney?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kenney is White at 49.8%. The next largest groups are Black (27.8%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Kenney most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kenney in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.8% (717 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 Kenney in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kenney a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Kenney 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 Kenney still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kenney 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 Kenney 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 share the name Kenney?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.