Kandra
Feminine
Kandra is older in the American record than the name it looks like a variant of. The spelling with an e in the front, which everybody assumes is the original, arrives later; this one was on certificates first. Which makes the usual account — that it is a respelling of a commoner name — impossible in the direction people assume.
How old is the name Kandra?
Kandra first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Kandra alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 1,300 people named Kandra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kandra most popular?
Kandra peaked in 1984, reaching #1961 nationally. See the whole 1984 chart.
Where it comes from
From A name in the registers without an ancestor to Kandra
Our story of Kandra
The chronology is the useful part. A name that appears in the register before the name it resembles cannot be derived from it, whatever the two look like side by side, and that single test disposes of a great many confident etymologies. It works the other way too: a spelling that appears immediately after a wave of a similar name, in the same states, is almost certainly a respelling however elaborate the story attached to it. The register is a weak instrument, but it is a dated one, and dates settle questions that resemblances cannot. What it cannot say is where the earlier name came from, and for this one nobody knows.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source can be established. The name has no ancestor in any European language, the endings it shares with Greek names were cut from those names rather than inherited, and the front is a single consonant and a vowel. The readings printed for it are supplied, and the commonest of them belongs to a name it predates.
How the name formed
- A name in the registers without an ancestor
- Appearing before the name it resembles
- A family of similar coinages arriving later
- Kandra kept in small use across the century
Pronouncing Kandra
KAN-druh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The consonants in the middle come together with no vowel between them, which is why the name resists being cut down: there is no clean place to break it.
Nicknames for Kandra
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
- 1947
- Most girls named
- 198860 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1961reached in 1984
- Change vs 2012
- +16.7%7 in 2013, 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.
Kandras among us
people named Kandra 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
Kandra 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
- It is short, firm and immediately sayable by anybody.
- The stress at the front gives it a clear and definite shape.
- It is genuinely rare without being difficult in any way.
- Kendra is much commoner and this will be converted into it.
- There is no short form to be had, which some families mind.
- No meaning can be given, because the name has no ancestor.
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Kandra
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kandras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Kandra are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kandra in 2025?
- Kandra is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kandra with classmates?
- Kandra 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 Kandra? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kandra and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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