Kendal
Feminine · “valley of the river Kent”
Kendal is given to both — 9,123 girls and 4,677 boys since 1880. See Kendal as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Kendal is a town in the English Lake District, and its name is a straightforward piece of geography: the valley of the river Kent. The single l is the town's spelling; the doubled one is the surname's.
How old is the name Kendal?
Kendal first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Kendal alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 9,000 people named Kendal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kendal most popular?
Kendal peaked in 2004, reaching #513 nationally. Today it ranks #3249, 2,736 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kent dalr to Kendal
The story of Kendal
Kendal grew as a wool town and gave its name to Kendal green, the cloth Shakespeare mentions. Families took the town's name, and Kendall with two l's became the usual surname form. Its use as a given name is recent: it arrived for boys first and then, more strongly, for girls, in the same movement that took Kendra, Kinsley and Kensington. The single-l spelling stays closer to the town.
Meaning
valley of the river Kent
From the river name Kent, which is Brittonic and older than English, and Old Norse dalr, a valley — the Norse word the Vikings left across the north of England.
How the name formed
- Kent dalr
- Kendal
Related forms: Kendall
Pronouncing Kendal
KEN-dul
Two syllables, first stressed. Kendal and Kendall sound the same.
Nicknames for Kendal
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
- 1951
- Most girls named
- 2004565 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #513reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- +11.6%48 in 2025, from 43
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.
Kendal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kendall in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, California.
Kendals among us
people named Kendal are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was named Kendal
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kendal
- #3249
- Kendal on the 2025 chart
- #320
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kendal went to 48 girls in 2025, but Kendall is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 980, which makes it the 320th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,929 places above the chart.
- Kendall932
- Kendal48
About 1 girl in 1,640 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 33,485 for Kendal itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Leeann test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kendal's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leeann climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leeann's path sketches the road Kendal is walking now.
Kendal 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
Where Kendal is headed
Kendal is easing off slowly — about 25% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kendal beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kendal in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning drawn from a real place with a Norse and Brittonic history behind it.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- It works for a girl or a boy, which is useful before a birth.
- Kendall is the far more common spelling and the second l will be added constantly.
- Being used for both sexes means forms and teachers will sometimes guess wrong.
- Kendra and Kendal are close enough to be confused in speech.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kendal
Feminine · #3249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kendals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,000 people named Kendal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kendal?
- Kendal is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kendall is the more common one — 932 births in 2025 against 48 for Kendal.
- How popular is the name Kendal in 2025?
- Kendal ranks #3249 among US girl names in 2025, with 48 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kendal?
- About 1 in every 33,485 US girls born in 2025 was named Kendal — 48 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kendal with classmates?
- Kendal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kendal
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aisley#3249 · Quinley#3249 · Rosetta#3249 · Avalee#3249 · Unknown#3249 · Livi#3249 · Delina#3249 · Aniah#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kendal? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kendal and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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