Kendall
Masculine · “valley of the River Kent”
Kendall is given to both — 35,350 boys and 66,533 girls since 1880. See Kendall as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Kendall began as an English place and then a family name: the town of Kendal in Cumbria, in the valley of the River Kent. It moved from map to surname to first name, and it has been on American birth records without a gap since the years between the two world wars. In the mouth it is two even beats, the stress landing firmly on the first — KEN-dul — with the softest possible landing at the end.
How old is the name Kendall?
Kendall first appears in US birth records in 1906 — 119 years ago. The typical Kendall alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 30,500 people named Kendall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kendall most popular?
Kendall peaked in 1993, reaching #287 nationally. Today it ranks #1231, 944 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From River Kent to Kendall
The story of Kendall
Kendal sits where the River Kent runs down out of the Lake District fells, and it gave its name to the families who came from there — Kendall, Kendal, Kendell, spelled however the parish clerk heard it. The town was known across medieval England for its woolen cloth, the 'Kendal green' that Shakespeare put into the mouth of Falstaff in Henry IV. Carried to North America as a surname, it joined the long line of English family names that crossed over into first names, and it has been given to American children continuously ever since the early twentieth century. Both boys and girls received it from the start, as surname-names generally are; over the decades the balance tipped toward girls, where most of it now sits, with a real and continuing minority of boys.
Meaningscholars disagree
valley of the River Kent
The main reading traces the name to Kendal in Cumbria, from the river name Kent plus dale, 'valley'. A second reading, also taken seriously by surname scholars, derives it from Welsh pen y ddol, 'head of the meadow or dale'. Both land on much the same picture: a name for someone from a particular valley.
How the name formed
- River Kent
- Kendaltown in Cumbria
- KendallEnglish surname
- Kendallgiven name
Related forms: Kendal · Kendell · Kendyl
Pronouncing Kendall
KEN-dul
Stress on the first syllable; the second is light, closer to -dul or -dl than a full -dall. The pronunciation is settled and is the same for boys and girls.
Nicknames for Kendall
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
- 1906
- Most boys named
- 1994949 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #287reached in 1993
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%163 in 2025, from 163
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.
Kendall in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kendal in English — spelling variant
- Kendell in English — spelling variant
- Kendyl in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Illinois, Florida.
Kendalls among us
people named Kendall are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,479 born in 2025 was named Kendall
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Merlin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kendall's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Merlin climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Merlin's path sketches the road Kendall is walking now.
Kendall 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 Kendall is headed
Kendall should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Kendall beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kendall in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An unbroken presence on US birth records since the early twentieth century — familiar to every generation now living, without ever having been inescapable.
- Reads on sight for English speakers: two syllables, no silent letters, no pronunciation instructions needed.
- Works for a boy or a girl without alteration, as surname-names generally do.
- Comes with ready-made short forms in Ken and Kenny, plus the option of using the full name only.
- Kendal, Kendell and Kendyl all exist, so expect to spell it aloud now and then — though the double-L version is the one people default to.
- Most Kendalls today are girls. A boy will meet the occasional assumption in the other direction, especially on paperwork and class lists.
- The obvious nicknames, Ken and Kenny, are strongly established as men's names in their own right; some families simply skip them and use the full name, which carries fine on its own.
- It sits close to Kendra and Kenneth in sound, so mishearings over the phone are the likeliest small annoyance.
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What they receive
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Kendall
Masculine · #1231 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kendalls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 30,500 people named Kendall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kendall in 2025?
- Kendall ranks #1231 among US boy names in 2025, with 163 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kendall?
- About 1 in every 10,479 US boys born in 2025 was named Kendall — 163 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kendall with classmates?
- Kendall will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kendall
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mattias#1231 · Mike#1231 · Ahmir#1231 · Westen#1235 · Natanael#1227 · Yasin#1235 · Viktor#1235 · Demetrius#1227
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kendall? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kendall and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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