Kennedie
Feminine name of Scottish origin, a medieval variant of Kennedy.
Name Census estimates that about 1,352 living Americans carry the first name Kennedie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kennedie today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kennedie births was 2007 (83 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kennedie. 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 Kennedie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 253,517 Americans
Peak year
2007
83 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,756
Tracked since 1994
Census
Kennedie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,136 people with the first name Kennedie, which placed it at #11,344 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
#11,344
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,136 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kennedie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kennedie is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Black (31.9%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Kennedie 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 Kennedie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.0% · 625
- Black or African American31.9% · 362
- Two or more races6.0% · 68
- Hispanic or Latino5.7% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 8
Popularity
Kennedie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kennedie from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 639 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kennedie 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 Kennedie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kennedies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Kennedie, while North Carolina, Utah, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kennedie
The given name Kennedie has its origins in the Gaelic language spoken in Scotland and Ireland. It is derived from the Gaelic words "ceann" meaning "head" and "eidhidh" meaning "armored." Together, these words form the name "Ceanneidigh," which translates to "helmet-headed" or "ugly head."
This name likely originated in the Middle Ages, when helmets and armor were commonly worn by warriors and soldiers. It may have been used as a descriptive name or a nickname for someone with a distinctive or unusual-looking head or helmet.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kennedie can be found in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient chronicle of medieval Irish history. The entry for the year 1292 mentions a man named "Gillecalline Kennedie" who was involved in a conflict in Scotland.
The name gained prominence in Scotland during the 13th and 14th centuries, particularly among the Clan Kennedy, a powerful Scottish family with roots in Ayrshire. The Clan Kennedy played a significant role in Scottish history, and several members of the clan held influential positions in the Scottish government and military.
One notable figure with the name Kennedie was Sir James Kennedy (1406-1465), a Scottish prelate who served as Bishop of St. Andrews and played a crucial role in the founding of the University of St. Andrews in 1413. He was also a key figure in the political and religious affairs of Scotland during his time.
Another famous bearer of the name was Matthew Kennedy (1501-1551), a Scottish Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Glasgow and played a significant role in the Scottish Reformation. He was a supporter of the Catholic Church and was involved in several controversies with Protestant reformers.
In the 16th century, the name Kennedie also found its way to Ireland, where it was adopted by several families, particularly in Ulster. One notable Irish bearer of the name was Quentin Kennedy (1520-1564), a Catholic priest and theologian who was a prominent figure in the Counter-Reformation in Ireland.
The name Kennedie continued to be used in Scotland and Ireland throughout the centuries, and several other notable individuals bore the name, including:
1. Walter Kennedy (1459-1508), a Scottish clergyman and diplomat who served as Bishop of Dunkeld and played a significant role in Scottish politics during the reign of King James IV.
2. Thomas Kennedy (1776-1846), a Scottish mathematician and philosopher who made significant contributions to the field of natural philosophy and was a proponent of the wave theory of light.
3. Edmond Kennedy (1805-1848), an Irish explorer and surveyor who led expeditions in Australia and was one of the first Europeans to explore parts of the Australian outback.
4. John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870), an American novelist and politician who served as Secretary of the Navy under President Millard Fillmore and was a prominent figure in the literary scene of antebellum Baltimore.
While the name Kennedie has its roots in Scottish and Irish history, it has since spread to other parts of the world and has been adopted by people of various cultural backgrounds.
People
Kennedie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kennedie 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
Kennedie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kennedie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,352 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kennedie 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 253,517 US residents.
Is Kennedie a common name?
We classify Kennedie as "Rare". It ranks above 91.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,371 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kennedie most popular?
The single biggest year for Kennedie was 2007, when 83 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kennedie is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kennedie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,136 people with the name Kennedie, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,344 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 Kennedie 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 Kennedie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kennedie appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,129 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Kennedie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kennedie is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Black (31.9%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Kennedie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kennedie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.0% (625 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 Kennedie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kennedie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kennedie 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 Kennedie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kennedie 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 Kennedie 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 Kennedie?
Find out how many Americans are named Kennedie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.