Kensi
A feminine name with unknown origins and meanings.
Name Census estimates that about 744 living Americans carry the first name Kensi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kensi today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kensi births was 2014 (90 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kensi. 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 Kensi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
744
~ 1 in 460,691 Americans
Peak year
2014
90 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,338
Tracked since 1986
Census
Kensi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 753 people with the first name Kensi, which placed it at #15,320 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
#15,320
National first-name rank
People counted
753
753 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kensi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kensi is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.1%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Kensi 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 Kensi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.9% · 519
- Hispanic or Latino15.1% · 114
- Two or more races7.4% · 56
- Black or African American4.0% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 6
Popularity
Kensi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kensi 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 533 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
Kensi 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 Kensi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kensis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Kensi, while Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kensi
The name Kensi is of American origin, believed to have emerged in the late 20th century. Its roots can be traced back to the English surname "Kensington," which itself derives from the Old English words "Cynsige" and "ing," meaning "royal victory" and "people of." While the name has no known historical references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has gained popularity in recent decades.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Kensi can be found in the television series "NCIS: Los Angeles," where it was given to the character Kensi Blye, played by actress Daniela Ruah. This fictional character, introduced in 2009, may have contributed to the name's increased prominence.
Among notable historical figures who bore the name Kensi, though possibly spelled differently, is Kensi Farekava, a Fijian rugby union player who played for the national team in the early 2000s. Another individual with a similar name is Kensi Matsuura, a Japanese singer and actress born in 1985.
While not as widely documented, there have been a few other individuals throughout history who carried variations of the name Kensi. One such person was Kensi Wollstein, a German painter and illustrator active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for his depictions of rural life.
Additionally, Kensi Harada was a Japanese-American artist and sculptor who lived in the early to mid-20th century, best known for her works exploring themes of identity and cultural duality.
Despite its relatively recent emergence, the name Kensi has gained a foothold in various cultures, reflecting its unique blend of influences and its appeal as a distinctive and contemporary moniker.
People
Kensi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kensi 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
Kensi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kensi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 744 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kensi 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 460,691 US residents.
Is Kensi a common name?
We classify Kensi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 752 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kensi most popular?
The single biggest year for Kensi was 2014, when 90 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kensi 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 Kensi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 753 people with the name Kensi, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,320 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 Kensi 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 Kensi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kensi leans strongly female. 735 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 17 male bearers (2.3%). 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 Kensi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kensi is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.1%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Kensi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kensi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.9% (519 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 Kensi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kensi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kensi 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 Kensi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kensi 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 Kensi 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 Kensi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.