Kennith
Masculine · “Gaelic Cinaed or Coinneach”
Kennith is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,560 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
America had a Scottish wave as well as an Irish one, and it worked differently. The Irish names came from surnames; the Scottish ones, Kenneth, Douglas, Gordon, Bruce, Duncan and Craig, came from clans and places and arrived as first names already.
How old is the name Kennith?
Kennith first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Kennith alive today was born around 1956, making them about 69 years old. About 6,700 people named Kennith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kennith most popular?
Kennith peaked in 1940, reaching #422 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,273 places below that high. See the whole 1940 chart.
Where it comes from
From Cinaed to Kennith
The story of Kennith
The Scottish contribution to American naming is easy to miss because it does not look ethnic. Kenneth entered the American top fifty in the 1920s and stayed there for forty years; Douglas, Gordon, Bruce, Duncan, Craig, Keith, Ross and Grant followed on similar curves. Most of them are clan names or territorial names rather than personal ones, so they had already been used as given names in Scotland before crossing, which is why they arrive complete rather than as surnames being repurposed. The wave peaked in the middle of the century and receded, and the names now read as mid-century American rather than Scottish at all. The -ith spelling of this one records what the unstressed syllable actually sounds like.
Meaningscholars disagree
Gaelic Cinaed or Coinneach
Kenneth renders two separate Gaelic names: Cinaed, generally read as born of fire, and Coinneach, comely. English collapsed them. Kennith is a phonetic American respelling of the unstressed second syllable; its peak is 1940.
How the name formed
- Cinaed
- Kenneth
- Kennith
Related forms: Kenneth · Coinneach
Pronouncing Kennith
KEN-ith
Two syllables, stress on the first. Kenneth and Kennith are homophones; the second vowel is reduced in both.
Nicknames for Kennith
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 1956234 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #422reached in 1940
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2025, from 8
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.
Kennith in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kenneth in English — spelling variant
- Coinneach in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Kenniths among us
people named Kennith are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Kennith
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 Denver test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kennith's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Denver climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Denver's path sketches the road Kennith is walking now.
Kennith 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
Kennith beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kennith in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ken and Kenny are two immediate short forms.
- The Gaelic names behind it are documented and royal.
- Two syllables with a firm opening beat.
- Kenneth is the standard spelling by a wide margin.
- The 1940 peak dates this form to the mid-century.
- The two Gaelic sources give two different meanings.
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What they receive
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Kennith
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kenniths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,700 people named Kennith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kennith in 2025?
- Kennith ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kennith?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Kennith — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kennith with classmates?
- Kennith will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kennith
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kennith? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kennith and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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