Kansas
Feminine · “From the Kansa people”
Kansas is given to both — 1,231 girls and 98 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Kansas is a state name given as a first name, and its 1898 peak is the interesting part: this is not a modern trend. American families were naming daughters after states and territories in the nineteenth century — Nevada, Missouri, Texas, Indiana, Arizona, Kansas — and the practice was at its strongest while those places were still being settled.
How old is the name Kansas?
Kansas first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Kansas alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,200 people named Kansas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kansas most popular?
Kansas peaked in 1898, reaching #1700 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 5,433 places below that high. See the whole 1898 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kansa to Kansas
The story of Kansas
The nineteenth-century American habit of naming children after places was strongest at the frontier and strongest for new places. A daughter named Nevada in 1875 or Kansas in 1898 was named for somewhere that had been a state for a generation or less, and the name carried the same charge that a newly minted word carries. The practice faded as the map settled; by 1920 almost all of these names had gone. Kansas's small modern return arrives from a different direction entirely, alongside Dakota, Montana and Carolina.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the Kansa people, whose own name is variously read
The state takes its name from the Kansas River, named for the Kaw or Kansa nation. The people's own name has been glossed as "people of the south wind", but that reading is not securely established and appears to be a later interpretation rather than a documented translation. The state name is certain; the meaning under it is not.
How the name formed
- Kansa
- Kansas River
- Kansas
Pronouncing Kansas
KAN-zus
Two syllables, stress on the first, said exactly like the state. Note the American oddity that Kansas ends in a Z sound while Arkansas, from the same root, ends in a silent w — the spelling is no guide.
Nicknames for Kansas
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 200250 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1700reached in 1898
- Change vs 2024
- +7.1%15 in 2025, from 14
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.
Kansas in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: South Carolina, Texas.
Kansass among us
people named Kansas are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Kansas
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Kansas sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Kansas beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kansas in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is impossible to mispronounce or misspell.
- It has a real nineteenth-century history as a girls' name, not just a modern one.
- The two-syllable trochee is a strong, memorable shape.
- The state association is total; there is no reading of the name that escapes it.
- Names taken from Indigenous nations are worth thinking about carefully.
- It is currently very rare, so it carries no shared reference point.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Kansas
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kansass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Kansas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kansas in 2025?
- Kansas ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kansas?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Kansas — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kansas with classmates?
- Kansas will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kansas
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Rivers#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kansas? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kansas and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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