Kendel
Feminine · “the valley of the River Kent”
Kendel is given to both — 801 girls and 822 boys since 1880. See Kendel as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Kendel writes an English town name in an American way. The town stands at the southern gate of the Lake District, where the River Kent runs down toward the sea, and the thing it is most famous for is a slab of hard peppermint sugar made there. That sugar went up Everest with the first expedition to reach the summit, and the climbers ate it at the top.
How old is the name Kendel?
Kendel first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Kendel alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 800 people named Kendel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kendel most popular?
Kendel peaked in 1987, reaching #3624 nationally. See the whole 1987 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kent to Kendel
The story of Kendel
The town grew where the Kent runs down to Morecambe Bay, and it gave its name to a barony, then a surname, then to children. The county around it was Westmorland until the boundaries were redrawn, and the wider region is Cumbria. That word is worth knowing. It is the same word the Welsh use for their own country, Cymru, and both mean something close to fellow countrymen. The Britons of the north-west and the Britons of Wales spoke one language and called themselves one thing, and the county name still quietly records it. This spelling, with the plain -el, is an American simplification of the English Kendal.
Meaning
the valley of the River Kent
The town's name joins the river's name to the old northern word for a valley. The river came first and its name is older than the town's by a long way.
How the name formed
- Kent
- Kendal
- Kendall
- Kendel
Pronouncing Kendel
KEN-dul
Stress on the first syllable. The ending is a light uh, which is why it gets written -al, -ell and -el with no change in the sound.
Nicknames for Kendel
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
- 1961
- Most girls named
- 200534 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3624reached in 1987
- Change vs 2017
- +20.0%6 in 2023, from 5
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.
Kendels among us
people named Kendel 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
Kendel 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 comes with a ready short form in Ken, which is familiar everywhere and stands perfectly well alone.
- A real town stands behind it, with a river, a valley and a documented history anyone can go and read.
- The sound is easy for English speakers on first sight, even when the spelling is new to them.
- This spelling is split almost evenly between boys and girls, so forms and software will guess, and will often guess wrong.
- Kendall is the commoner spelling by a wide margin, and this one will be corrected to it regularly.
- Some listeners hear a surname first, which is fair enough, because that is exactly where it came from.
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What they receive
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Kendel
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kendels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Kendel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kendel in 2025?
- Kendel is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kendel with classmates?
- Kendel 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 Kendel? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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