Kensington
A place name referring to an area of London.
Name Census estimates that about 3,025 living Americans carry the first name Kensington. It is a predominantly female name (94.7% of registrations). The average person named Kensington today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kensington births was 2015 (292 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kensington. 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.
Key insights
- • Kensington is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 113,307 Americans
Peak year
2015
292 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,389
Tracked since 1997
Census
Kensington in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,379 people with the first name Kensington, which placed it at #6,676 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
#6,676
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,379 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kensington
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kensington is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Kensington 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 Kensington at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.5% · 1,773
- Black or African American9.0% · 215
- Two or more races8.4% · 201
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 130
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Kensington
Kensington leans heavily female at 94.7% of total registrations, but 161 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kensington as a male name
- Ranked #9,419 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (18 births)
Kensington as a female name
- Ranked #2,389 in 2024
- 76 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (278 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kensington leans strongly female. 2,257 people counted with this name were female (94.5%), compared with 131 male bearers (5.5%).
Popularity
Kensington: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kensington 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 2,107 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
Kensington 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 Kensington during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kensingtons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kensington, while Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 61 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kensington
The name Kensington has its origins in the English language and is derived from the name of a district in London, England. The name Kensington itself is a combination of two Old English words, "Kenesine" meaning "a man from Kent" and "tun" meaning "settlement" or "town."
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Kensington dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was written as "Kemesitun." This suggests that the area was already established as a settlement by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066.
While the name Kensington is not found in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it does have historical significance as the name of a prestigious London district. The area of Kensington became a fashionable residential area for the aristocracy and wealthy during the 17th and 18th centuries.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Kensington was William Kensington (1600-1672), an English politician who served as a Member of Parliament for Middlesex. Another early bearer of the name was Sir John Kensington (1620-1689), an English lawyer and politician who served as a judge and Member of Parliament.
In the 18th century, Sir John Kensington (1725-1802) was a British naval officer who served in the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War. He rose to the rank of Admiral and was appointed a Knight of the Bath.
In the 19th century, Kensington Digby (1832-1891) was an English writer and traveler who wrote several books about his travels in Europe and Asia. He was also known for his interest in spiritualism and the occult.
Another notable figure with the name Kensington was Sir Henry Kensington (1870-1935), a British soldier and colonial administrator who served as the Governor of Malta from 1924 to 1928.
While the name Kensington is not as common today as it once was, it has a rich history and is associated with the prestigious London district from which it originates.
People
Kensington + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kensington 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
Kensington: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kensington?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,025 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kensington 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 113,307 US residents.
Is Kensington a common name?
We classify Kensington as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,050 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kensington most popular?
The single biggest year for Kensington was 2015, when 292 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kensington is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kensington in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,379 people with the name Kensington, or 0.79 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,676 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 Kensington 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 Kensington?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kensington leans strongly female. 2,257 people counted with this name were female (94.5%), compared with 131 male bearers (5.5%). 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 Kensington?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kensington is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Kensington most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kensington in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.5% (1,773 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 Kensington in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kensington a female name?
Yes, 94.7% of people registered as Kensington 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 Kensington still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kensington 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 Kensington 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 Kensington?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.