Kemper
A name derived from Old English meaning "champion", "warrior", or "soldier".
Name Census estimates that about 1,607 living Americans carry the first name Kemper. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Kemper today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kemper births was 2009 (77 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kemper. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 213,288 Americans
Peak year
2009
77 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,247
Tracked since 1912
Census
Kemper in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,413 people with the first name Kemper, which placed it at #9,721 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
#9,721
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,413 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kemper
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kemper is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Kemper 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 Kemper at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.5% · 1,222
- Black or African American4.5% · 63
- Two or more races4.3% · 61
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 52
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Kemper
Kemper leans heavily male at 85.0% of total registrations, but 280 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kemper as a male name
- Ranked #4,247 in 2024
- 25 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (70 births)
Kemper as a female name
- Ranked #6,496 in 2024
- 18 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (27 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kemper leans strongly male. 1,136 people counted with this name were male (80.5%), compared with 276 female bearers (19.5%).
Popularity
Kemper: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kemper from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 588 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kemper remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kemper 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 Kemper during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kempers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Virginia, Texas, Kansas recorded the most babies named Kemper, while Utah, Idaho, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kemper
The name Kemper is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old German word "Kamb," meaning "comb" or "ridge." It is believed to have originated as a surname during the Middle Ages, likely referring to someone who lived near a prominent ridge or someone who worked with combs or was involved in the textile industry.
The earliest recorded use of the name Kemper dates back to the 9th century, when it appeared in various Germanic regions such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In the following centuries, the name spread to other parts of Europe and eventually made its way to the Americas through immigration.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Kemper was Reinier Kemper, a Dutch theologian and philosopher who lived from 1576 to 1638. He was a prominent figure in the Dutch Reformed Church and wrote several influential works on theology and philosophy.
Another historical figure with the name Kemper was Johann Kemper, a German composer and organist who lived from 1595 to 1682. He is known for his contributions to the development of the North German organ school and his compositions for organ and choral music.
In the 19th century, Reuben Eber Kemper (1804-1884) was a prominent American businessman and banker. He founded the Kemper Financial Companies, which became one of the largest insurance companies in the United States.
James Lawson Kemper (1823-1895) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 37th Governor of Virginia from 1874 to 1878. He played a significant role in the post-Civil War reconstruction efforts in Virginia.
More recently, Jayne Anne Phillips (born 1952), an American novelist and short story writer, was born with the name Jayne Anne Kemper. She is known for her works exploring themes of family, relationships, and the complexities of human experiences.
Throughout its history, the name Kemper has been associated with individuals from various walks of life, including theologians, composers, businessmen, politicians, and writers. While its origins can be traced back to Germanic roots, the name has gained a broader international presence over time.
People
Kemper + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kemper 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
Kemper: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kemper?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,607 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kemper 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 213,288 US residents.
Is Kemper a common name?
We classify Kemper as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,864 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kemper most popular?
The single biggest year for Kemper was 2009, when 77 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kemper is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kemper in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,413 people with the name Kemper, or 0.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,721 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 Kemper 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 Kemper?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kemper leans strongly male. 1,136 people counted with this name were male (80.5%), compared with 276 female bearers (19.5%). 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 Kemper?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kemper is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.5%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Kemper most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kemper in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.5% (1,222 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 Kemper in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kemper a male name?
Yes, 85.0% of people registered as Kemper 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 Kemper still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kemper 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 Kemper 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 Kemper?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.