Kedric
Masculine
Kedric looks like an old English name and is not one, or at least cannot be shown to be one. It has the right shape — a hard opening, a compact ending that turns up in a dozen genuine Germanic names — and no traceable line back to any of them.
How old is the name Kedric?
Kedric first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Kedric alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 900 people named Kedric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kedric most popular?
Kedric peaked in 1981, reaching #1865 nationally. See the whole 1981 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Germanic names end in an element meaning rule or power to Kedric
The story of Kedric
The ending, at least, is real and belongs to a naming system with a striking habit. The early English royal houses named by alliteration: a dynasty picked a letter and kept it for generations, so that the West Saxon kings run Cerdic, Cynric, Ceawlin, Ceol, Ceolwulf, Cynegils, Cwichelm, Cenwalh — eight rulers, one initial, across roughly two centuries. Mercia did the same with P, Northumbria with a favored set of elements. The point was not decoration but legitimacy: a name that alliterated with the line's was a claim to belong to it, and a usurper could announce a claim simply by taking the right letter. A modern name built on that pattern's raw material is doing something distantly related — choosing a shape that sounds like it belongs to a line, without a line behind it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Three explanations are usually offered and none can be demonstrated. The name may be Cedric with the initial letter changed, in which case it inherits a nineteenth-century novelist's misreading of a much older king's name. It may be Kendrick shortened, and Kendrick has its own Welsh and Old English candidates. Or it may be a modern American formation built on the ending that finishes Frederick, Roderick and Alaric. Since these point to different languages, no single meaning can be given for the name as it stands.
How the name formed
- Germanic names end in an element meaning rule or power
- Early English dynasties name by alliteration for generations
- Cedric and Kendrick establish the modern shape in English
- Kedric appears in American records with no single traceable parent
Related forms: Cedric · Kedrick · Kendrick
Pronouncing Kedric
KED-rik
Two syllables with the stress on the first. There is no ambiguity in the sound at all — every letter does what an English reader expects — which makes this one of the rare unusual names that never needs to be said twice.
Nicknames for Kedric
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
- 1921
- Most boys named
- 198130 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1865reached in 1981
- Change vs 2023
- −16.7%5 in 2024, 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.
Kedric in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cedric in English — related form
- Kedrick in English — spelling variant
- Kendrick in English — related form
Kedrics among us
people named Kedric 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
Kedric 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
- Completely phonetic and impossible to mispronounce on sight
- Sounds established and masculine without belonging to any crowded generation
- Two clean short forms, one of which is a full name elsewhere
- It will be written Cedric or Kedrick by people who have only heard it.
- No reference work will give a meaning, because there is no agreed parent name to take one from.
- The K makes it look like a modern respelling even though the ending it carries is genuinely old.
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Kedric
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Kedrics are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Kedric are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kedric in 2025?
- Kedric is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Kedric with classmates?
- Kedric will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Kenneth#294 · Kevin#221 · Kyle#508 · Keith#800 · Karl#1585 · Kaleb#295 · Kurt#2258 · Kelly#1867
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kedric? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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