Kember
Of Scottish origin, meaning a room or inner chamber.
Name Census estimates that about 234 living Americans carry the first name Kember. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kember today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kember births was 2012 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kember. 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
234
~ 1 in 1,464,762 Americans
Peak year
2012
15 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,329
Tracked since 1987
Census
Kember in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 265 people with the first name Kember, which placed it at #32,010 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
#32,010
National first-name rank
People counted
265
265 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kember
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kember is White at 79.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.1%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Kember 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 Kember at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.2% · 210
- Two or more races9.1% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino5.3% · 14
- Black or African American4.2% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 2
Popularity
Kember: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kember from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 111 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
Kember 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 Kember during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kember
The given name Kember is believed to have originated from the Old English word "cumb," which means a valley or a hollow place. It is thought to have been a surname initially, derived from a geographical location or a topographical feature, before eventually becoming a first name.
The earliest recorded use of the name Kember can be traced back to the 13th century in England. During this time, surnames were becoming more prevalent, and many were derived from a person's occupation, physical characteristics, or the place they lived. The name Kember likely originated as a surname for someone who lived near a valley or a hollow.
One of the earliest documented individuals with the name Kember was Sir John Kember, a knight who lived in the late 13th century and was known for his military service during the Welsh wars under King Edward I. Another early bearer of the name was William Kember, a landowner and merchant from Sussex, England, who lived in the 14th century.
In the 16th century, the name Kember gained some prominence with the birth of Thomas Kember, an English mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics. He was born in 1555 and lived until 1627.
During the 17th century, a notable figure named Kember was Elizabeth Kember, a Quaker preacher and author who was born in 1644 in Wiltshire, England. She traveled extensively, advocating for religious tolerance and publishing several works on Quaker beliefs.
In the 19th century, one of the most famous individuals with the name Kember was Samuel Kember, an English painter and illustrator known for his depictions of rural life and landscapes. He was born in 1811 and died in 1887.
While the name Kember has its roots in Old English, it has been used across various cultures and regions over time, likely due to its association with geographic features or its adoption as a first name from a surname. Despite its ancient origins, the name Kember continues to be used today, carrying with it a rich history and connection to the English landscape.
People
Kember + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kember 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
Kember: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kember?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 234 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kember 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 1,464,762 US residents.
Is Kember a common name?
We classify Kember as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 237 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kember most popular?
The single biggest year for Kember was 2012, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kember is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kember in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 265 people with the name Kember, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,010 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 Kember 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 Kember?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kember leans strongly female. 237 people counted with this name were female (88.8%), compared with 30 male bearers (11.2%). 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 Kember?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kember is White at 79.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.1%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Kember most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kember in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.2% (210 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 Kember in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kember a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kember 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 Kember still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kember 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 Kember 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 Americans are named Kember?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.