Kennie
Diminutive form of the Scottish name Kenneth, meaning "born of fire".
Name Census estimates that about 1,117 living Americans carry the first name Kennie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Kennie today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kennie births was 1960 (44 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kennie. 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 Kennie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 306,853 Americans
Peak year
1960
44 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2017 SSA rank
#10,658
Tracked since 1896
Census
Kennie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,068 people with the first name Kennie, which placed it at #11,830 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
#11,830
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,068 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kennie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kennie is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Black (33.7%) and Hispanic (9.6%). 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 Kennie 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 Kennie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.1% · 524
- Black or African American33.7% · 360
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 103
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 44
- Two or more races2.3% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Kennie
Kennie leans heavily male at 80.5% of total registrations, but 316 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kennie as a male name
- Ranked #13,309 in 2017
- 5 male births in 2017
- Peak: 1960 (37 births)
Kennie as a female name
- Ranked #10,658 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kennie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,067 people counted with this name, 735 were male (68.9%) and 332 were female (31.1%).
Popularity
Kennie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kennie from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 307 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
Kennie 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 Kennie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kennies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Illinois recorded the most babies named Kennie, while Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kennie
The name Kennie is a Scottish variant of the given name Kenneth, which has its origins in the Gaelic language. The name is derived from the Celtic elements "ced" meaning "fire" and "nath" meaning "born" or "chieftain." Together, these elements form the meaning "born of fire" or "chief born."
The name Kenneth has a long history, with its earliest recorded use dating back to the 6th century AD. It was particularly popular among the Picts, an ancient Celtic people who lived in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. The name was later adopted by Scottish clans, and it became associated with royalty and nobility.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kenneth is in the "Book of Deer," a 9th-century Latin manuscript containing the oldest surviving Gaelic writing. The manuscript mentions a Pictish king named Kenneth, believed to be Kenneth I, who reigned over the Kingdom of Alba (ancient Scotland) in the mid-9th century.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Kenneth was borne by several Scottish kings and nobles. One notable figure was Kenneth III, who ruled as King of Scots from 997 to 1005 AD. He was responsible for bringing the relics of St. Columba to the church in Dunkeld, which became a significant religious center in Scotland.
Another famous bearer of the name was Kenneth MacAlpin, who is credited with being the first king to unite the Picts and the Gaels into the Kingdom of Alba in the 9th century. He is considered a pivotal figure in Scottish history and the founder of the royal line that would eventually become the House of Stuart.
In the 12th century, the name Kenneth was also present in Ireland, where it was anglicized as "Kennie." One notable Irish bearer of the name was Kennie O'Clery, a 17th-century historian and chronicler who was part of the famous O'Clery family of scholars and scribes.
The name Kennie has also been used in literature and popular culture. One example is Kennie Lazzari, a character in the novel "The World According to Garp" by John Irving, published in 1978.
While the name Kenneth has maintained its popularity throughout the centuries, the variant spelling "Kennie" is less common today. However, it remains a testament to the rich cultural heritage and historical significance of this name, which has its roots in the ancient Celtic traditions of Scotland and Ireland.
People
Kennie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kennie 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
Kennie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kennie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,117 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kennie 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 306,853 US residents.
Is Kennie a common name?
We classify Kennie as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,624 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kennie most popular?
The single biggest year for Kennie was 1960, when 44 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kennie is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kennie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,068 people with the name Kennie, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,830 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 Kennie 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 Kennie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kennie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,067 people counted with this name, 735 were male (68.9%) and 332 were female (31.1%). 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 Kennie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kennie is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Black (33.7%) and Hispanic (9.6%). 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 Kennie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kennie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.1% (524 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 Kennie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kennie a male name?
Yes, 80.5% of people registered as Kennie 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 Kennie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kennie 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 Kennie 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 Kennie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.