Kenton
Masculine · “royal manor”
Kenton is the royal manor or the settlement on the Kenn — an English place name that appears in several counties with different first elements.
How old is the name Kenton?
Kenton first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Kenton alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 9,400 people named Kenton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kenton most popular?
Kenton peaked in 1958, reaching #586 nationally. Today it ranks #1753, 1,167 places below that high. See the whole 1958 chart.
Where it comes from
From cyning tun to Kenton
The story of Kenton
Kentons exist in Devon, Middlesex, Suffolk and Northumberland, and the surname came from all of them. It crossed into American given-name use in the nineteenth century among the wide family of -ton surnames — Weston, Benton, Colton, Ashton. Kenton appears in the American registers and is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
royal manor; settlement on the Kenn
From the Old English tun, 'settlement', with a first element that differs by place: cyning, 'king', at Kenton in Middlesex; the river Kenn at Kenton in Devon. Both are documented and the surname descends from more than one place. The tun element is settled.
How the name formed
- cyning tun
- Kenton
Related forms: Kentonn · Kenneth
Pronouncing Kenton
KEN-tun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Kenton
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 1958174 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #586reached in 1958
- Change vs 2023
- +22.7%92 in 2025, from 75
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.
Kenton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kentonn in English — spelling variant
- Kenneth in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky.
Kentons among us
people named Kenton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 18,566 born in 2025 was named Kenton
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 Caesar test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kenton's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Caesar climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Caesar's path sketches the road Kenton is walking now.
Kenton 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 Kenton is headed
Kenton is easing off slowly — about 22% 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.
Kenton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kenton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The royal-manor reading is concrete and belongs to a real family of English place names.
- Ken and Kent are two short forms, both names in their own right.
- Two firm syllables that carry well against any surname.
- The first element differs between the places the surname comes from.
- It reads as a surname before it reads as a given name.
- Kendon and Kenyon are close enough to cause confusion.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kenton
Masculine · #1753 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kentons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,400 people named Kenton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kenton in 2025?
- Kenton ranks #1753 among US boy names in 2025, with 92 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kenton?
- About 1 in every 18,566 US boys born in 2025 was named Kenton — 92 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kenton with classmates?
- Kenton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kenton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ames#1753 · Yehoshua#1753 · Salomon#1753 · Akai#1753 · Keyler#1753 · Arley#1753 · Riaan#1753 · Zealand#1753
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kenton? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kenton and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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