Kenisha
Feminine · “Hebrew Ketziah”
Kenisha is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 4,019 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
The book of Job names three daughters at the very end, and they are the only women in the book with names: Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-happuch. Keziah means cassia, the bark, and it is the most plausible ancestor of the whole Keisha family.
How old is the name Kenisha?
Kenisha first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Kenisha alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 3,900 people named Kenisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kenisha most popular?
Kenisha peaked in 1978, reaching #557 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 9,550 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ketziah to Kenisha
The story of Kenisha
Job ends with restoration, and the last thing the book records is the birth of ten children, of whom only the three daughters are named: Jemimah, a dove; Keziah, cassia; and Keren-happuch, a horn of eye-paint. All three are named for things of beauty and value, and the text says there were no women so fair in all the land. Keziah traveled into English through Puritan Old Testament naming, was carried into African American use, and by the 1960s had been reshaped into Keisha. From there it went productive: the front detached to make Keishawn and Keisha's own variants, and the back detached to make Lakeisha, Tanisha, Kenisha and Latisha. One obscure verse at the end of a wisdom book stands, probably, behind several hundred thousand American names.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Ketziah, cassia
Kenisha belongs to the Keisha family. Keisha is generally traced to Keziah, the biblical name meaning cassia, a bark related to cinnamon, though the route is not documented and other origins are proposed. The Ken- opening and the -isha ending are both productive American elements. The peak is 1978.
How the name formed
- Ketziah
- Keziah
- Keisha
- Kenisha
Related forms: Kenesha · Keisha
Pronouncing Kenisha
kuh-NEE-shuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Kenisha and Kenesha are homophones; the middle vowel is long in both.
Nicknames for Kenisha
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 1978313 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #557reached in 1978
- Change vs 2024
- +50.0%9 in 2025, 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.
Kenisha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kenesha in English — spelling variant
- Keisha in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Kenishas among us
people named Kenisha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Kenisha
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 Kathlyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kenisha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kathlyn climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kathlyn's path sketches the road Kenisha is walking now.
Kenisha 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
Kenisha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kenisha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Nisha works as a short form and is a name in its own right.
- Three syllables with a strong central stress.
- The family it belongs to is large and well established.
- The biblical connection is probable rather than documented.
- Kenesha and Kenisha both appear in the records.
- The 1978 peak dates it closely.
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What they receive
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Kenisha
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kenishas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,900 people named Kenisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kenisha in 2025?
- Kenisha ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kenisha?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Kenisha — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kenisha with classmates?
- Kenisha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kenisha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kenisha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kenisha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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