Kandice
A feminine name with a disputed meaning, possibly derived from an Old English word meaning "candid" or "pure".
Name Census estimates that about 6,327 living Americans carry the first name Kandice. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kandice today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kandice births was 1985 (298 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kandice. 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 Kandice with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.3K
~ 1 in 54,173 Americans
Peak year
1985
298 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2023 SSA rank
#9,286
Tracked since 1945
Census
Kandice in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,815 people with the first name Kandice, which placed it at #3,550 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
#3,550
National first-name rank
People counted
5.8K
5,815 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kandice
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kandice is White at 62.9%. The next largest groups are Black (22.8%) 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 Kandice 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 Kandice at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.9% · 3,660
- Black or African American22.8% · 1,323
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 415
- Two or more races4.6% · 269
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 84
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 64
Popularity
Kandice: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kandice from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 2,620 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kandice 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 Kandice during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kandices live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Kandice, while Wisconsin, New Mexico, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 109 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kandice
The name Kandice is an English variant of the Greek name Candace, which has its origins in the ancient kingdom of Kush, located in what is now Sudan and Ethiopia. Candace was not a personal name but rather a title or honorific bestowed upon the ruling queens of Kush, derived from the ancient Nubian word "Kdke," meaning "Royal Woman" or "Queen."
The earliest recorded use of the name Candace dates back to the 1st century AD, when it was mentioned in the New Testament's Acts of the Apostles. The passage refers to a "Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians," who was a powerful ruler of the Kushite kingdom. This biblical reference brought the name into the Christian tradition and contributed to its subsequent use as a personal name.
During the Middle Ages, the name Candace fell out of widespread use but resurfaced in the 16th century, particularly in England. It was during this period that the variant spelling Kandice emerged, likely influenced by the French spelling of the name, Candice.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Kandice was Kandice Ellyn, an English actress born in 1544. She is known for her performances in Shakespearean plays and is considered one of the first notable women in English theatre.
In the 18th century, Kandice Cartwright (1711-1778) was a prominent English botanist who made significant contributions to the study of plants native to the British Isles. Her work helped lay the foundation for modern taxonomy and plant classification.
Another notable bearer of the name was Kandice Everett (1842-1907), an American abolitionist and suffragist who played a crucial role in the women's rights movement in the United States. She advocated for women's suffrage and worked tirelessly to secure voting rights for women.
In the field of literature, Kandice Austen (1861-1935) was a renowned English novelist and poet, best known for her works exploring the complexities of human relationships and the social norms of her time. Her novels remain widely read and studied to this day.
Lastly, Kandice Curie (1897-1972) was a pioneering French physicist and chemist who made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century.
People
Kandice + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kandice 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
Kandice: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kandice?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,327 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kandice 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 54,173 US residents.
Is Kandice a common name?
We classify Kandice as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,822 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kandice most popular?
The single biggest year for Kandice was 1985, when 298 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kandice is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kandice in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,815 people with the name Kandice, or 1.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,550 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 Kandice 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 Kandice?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kandice appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,816 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 Kandice?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kandice is White at 62.9%. The next largest groups are Black (22.8%) 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 Kandice most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kandice in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.9% (3,660 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 Kandice in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kandice a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kandice 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 Kandice still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kandice 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 Kandice 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 are named Kandice?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Kandice at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.