Kenlee
A feminine name combining "Ken," meaning handsome, and "Lee," meaning meadow.
Name Census estimates that about 2,198 living Americans carry the first name Kenlee. It is a predominantly female name (97.1% of registrations). The average person named Kenlee today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kenlee births was 2015 (159 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kenlee. 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 Kenlee with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Kenlee is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 64 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Kenlee is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 155,939 Americans
Peak year
2015
159 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2018 SSA rank
#2,938
Tracked since 1993
Census
Kenlee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,776 people with the first name Kenlee, which placed it at #8,208 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
#8,208
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,776 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kenlee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kenlee is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.0%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Kenlee 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 Kenlee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.6% · 1,449
- Two or more races6.0% · 106
- Black or African American5.7% · 102
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 68
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Kenlee
Kenlee leans heavily female at 97.1% of total registrations, but 64 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kenlee as a male name
- Ranked #11,508 in 2018
- 6 male births in 2018
- Peak: 2008 (8 births)
Kenlee as a female name
- Ranked #2,938 in 2024
- 56 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (153 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kenlee leans strongly female. 1,675 people counted with this name were female (94.4%), compared with 99 male bearers (5.6%).
Popularity
Kenlee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kenlee from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,272 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
Kenlee 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 Kenlee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kenlees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Kenlee, while South Carolina, Kansas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kenlee
The name Kenlee is a modern invention, combining the Scottish name Kenneth with the popular English suffix -lee. It does not have any direct historical or cultural origins.
Kenneth is a masculine name derived from the Gaelic Cináed, meaning "born of fire" or "fire-born". It gained popularity in Scotland due to the influence of Kenneth I, a semi-legendary king who reigned in the 9th century. Kenneth was later anglicized as Kenneth and spread to other parts of the British Isles and beyond.
The suffix -lee is a common English name ending, often used to create feminine names like Emily, Ashley, or Kaylee. It is thought to have originated from the Old English word "leah", meaning a meadow or clearing in a forest.
The combination of Kenneth and -lee into Kenlee is a modern invention, likely created in the late 20th or early 21st century as a feminine form of Kenneth. While there are no recorded historical figures specifically named Kenlee, a few notable people named Kenneth throughout history include:
1. Kenneth I, the semi-legendary king of Scotland who reigned in the 9th century.
2. Kenneth III of Scotland (c. 997 - c. 1005), a king of Scotland in the early 11th century.
3. Kenneth Branagh (born 1960), an acclaimed British actor, director, and playwright.
4. Kenneth Clark (1903 - 1983), a British art historian and broadcaster.
5. Kenneth MacMillan (1929 - 1992), a renowned British ballet dancer and choreographer.
As a relatively new name, Kenlee does not have a rich historical or cultural background. Its creation reflects the modern trend of creating unique and unconventional names by combining existing names or adding new suffixes and spellings.
People
Kenlee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kenlee 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
Kenlee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kenlee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,198 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kenlee 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 155,939 US residents.
Is Kenlee a common name?
We classify Kenlee as "Rare". It ranks above 94.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,219 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kenlee most popular?
The single biggest year for Kenlee was 2015, when 159 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kenlee is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kenlee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,776 people with the name Kenlee, or 0.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,208 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 Kenlee 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 Kenlee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kenlee leans strongly female. 1,675 people counted with this name were female (94.4%), compared with 99 male bearers (5.6%). 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 Kenlee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kenlee is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.0%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Kenlee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kenlee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.6% (1,449 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 Kenlee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kenlee a female name?
Yes, 97.1% of people registered as Kenlee 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 Kenlee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kenlee 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 Kenlee 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 Kenlee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.