Keyonna
A feminine name of African-American origin meaning "unique" or "uncommon".
Name Census estimates that about 3,461 living Americans carry the first name Keyonna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Keyonna today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keyonna births was 1995 (155 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keyonna. 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
3.5K
~ 1 in 99,033 Americans
Peak year
1995
155 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,682
Tracked since 1973
Census
Keyonna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,622 people with the first name Keyonna, which placed it at #6,181 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
#6,181
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,622 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keyonna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keyonna is Black at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.7%) and White (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 Keyonna 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 Keyonna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.4% · 2,186
- Two or more races7.7% · 202
- White5.2% · 136
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 7
Popularity
Keyonna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keyonna from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,137 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
Keyonna 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 Keyonna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keyonnas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. Georgia, Florida, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Keyonna, while Arkansas, Wisconsin, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 75 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keyonna
The name Keyonna is a modern feminine name of American origin, believed to have emerged in the late 20th century. Its precise etymology is uncertain, but it is thought to be a creative combination or variation of the names Keyana and Yvonne.
Keyana is a name of African-American origin, derived from the Swahili word "keya," meaning "born at dawn." Yvonne, on the other hand, is a French name derived from the Germanic name Ivo, meaning "yew wood." The blending of these two names, Keyana and Yvonne, likely resulted in the creation of the name Keyonna.
While the name Keyonna does not have a long historical tradition, it has gained popularity in recent decades, particularly in the United States. It is believed to have first emerged as a given name in the late 1970s or early 1980s, reflecting the growing trend of creating unique and personalized names during that time period.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Keyonna is Keyonna Benniefield, an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Another notable individual with this name is Keyonna Hendrix, an American professional basketball player who played in the WNBA for the San Antonio Stars.
Other individuals with the name Keyonna include Keyonna Blakeney, an American actress and singer known for her roles in television shows like "Empire" and "Star"; Keyonna Beach, an American singer and songwriter; and Keyonna Hawkins, an American politician who served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives.
While the name Keyonna may not have a rich historical lineage, its modern popularity and unique sound have contributed to its increasing usage in recent times, particularly among African-American communities in the United States.
People
Keyonna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keyonna 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
Keyonna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keyonna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,461 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keyonna 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 99,033 US residents.
Is Keyonna a common name?
We classify Keyonna as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,568 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keyonna most popular?
The single biggest year for Keyonna was 1995, when 155 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keyonna is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keyonna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,622 people with the name Keyonna, or 0.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,181 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 Keyonna 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 Keyonna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keyonna appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,624 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Keyonna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keyonna is Black at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.7%) and White (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 Keyonna most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Keyonna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.4% (2,186 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 Keyonna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keyonna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Keyonna 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 Keyonna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keyonna 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 Keyonna 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 Keyonna as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Keyonna, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.