Kadance
Feminine · “A falling”
Kadance is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 843 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Kadance respells a word that means a falling. A cadence is where a line of music or of speech comes down, and the word is about descent rather than about rhythm.
How old is the name Kadance?
Kadance first appears in US birth records in 2002 — 23 years ago. The typical Kadance alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Kadance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kadance most popular?
Kadance peaked in 2006, reaching #1961 nationally. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cadence to Kadance
The story of Kadance
Two changes and neither is audible. The initial c becomes a k, which in this position does exactly the same job; the middle vowel is written with an a rather than an e, and it is unstressed, so nothing can be heard. That is the standard shape of a modern word-name respelling: take an English word, change the letters that can be changed without consequence, and the result reads as a name rather than as a noun while sounding identical. What it costs is that the word underneath becomes invisible — and the word is a good one, with a clear meaning and a long history in music, and most people meeting this name will never connect the two.
Meaning
A falling — the close of a musical or spoken phrase
The Latin root is a verb about falling, and the word named the close of a phrase before it meant anything about marching or regular rhythm. The k and the altered vowel in this spelling change nothing about the sound or the sense.
How the name formed
- Cadence
- Kadance
Pronouncing Kadance
KAY-dunce
Two syllables, stress at the front. Identical to Cadence.
Nicknames for Kadance
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 2002
- Most girls named
- 2006102 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1961reached in 2006
- Change vs 2022
- −16.7%5 in 2023, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Kadances among us
people named Kadance are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Kadance sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The word behind it is concrete, pleasant and genuinely musical.
- It is read correctly on sight.
- It works for either child, which the record confirms.
- Cadence and Kadence are both commoner and hers will be written as one of them.
- The spelling is recorded for a few boys, but nearly every child with it is a girl.
- The respelling hides the word, which is most of what the name has.
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Kadance
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kadances are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Kadance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kadance in 2025?
- Kadance is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kadance with classmates?
- Kadance will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kadance? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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