Kenyon
Masculine · “Ynyr's mound”
Kenyon is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 7,977 boys against 187 girls since 1880.
Kenyon is an English place name from Lancashire, and behind it is a Celtic personal name — Ynyr — with the Welsh word for a mound in front of it.
How old is the name Kenyon?
Kenyon first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Kenyon alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 7,200 people named Kenyon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kenyon most popular?
Kenyon peaked in 2005, reaching #662 nationally. Today it ranks #3658, 2,996 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ynyr to Kenyon
The story of Kenyon
Lancashire keeps a scatter of Brittonic place names from before the English arrived, and Kenyon is one of them — the mound of a man called Ynyr, whose name is Welsh and whose barrow is long gone. Families took the place name as a surname, and it reached America with English emigration. Its use as a given name is recent and rose in the 1990s alongside Kendrick and Kenyatta.
Meaningscholars disagree
Ynyr's mound
The Lancashire place name is generally read as Brittonic cruc, a mound or barrow, with the personal name Ynyr; the first element has worn away entirely. Other readings have been proposed and none is fully settled.
How the name formed
- Ynyr
- Kenyon
Related forms: Ynyr
Pronouncing Kenyon
KEN-yuhn
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Kenyon
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 2005323 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #662reached in 2005
- Change vs 2023
- −9.1%30 in 2025, from 33
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.
Kenyon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ynyr in Welsh — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, California.
Kenyons among us
people named Kenyon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was named Kenyon
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 Mychal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kenyon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mychal climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mychal's path sketches the road Kenyon is walking now.
Kenyon 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 Kenyon is headed
Kenyon is easing off slowly — about 23% 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.
Kenyon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kenyon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English place name with a genuinely old Celtic layer underneath.
- Ken and Kenny are both plain short forms that work at any age.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- It sounds nearly identical to canyon, which will be noticed.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
- Kenyon and Kenyan are close enough to be confused in writing.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kenyon
Masculine · #3658 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kenyons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,200 people named Kenyon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kenyon in 2025?
- Kenyon ranks #3658 among US boy names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kenyon?
- About 1 in every 56,936 US boys born in 2025 was named Kenyon — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kenyon with classmates?
- Kenyon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kenyon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jimmie#3658 · Mckinley#3658 · Menno#3658 · Claudio#3658 · Ezekial#3658 · Brandt#3658 · Benuel#3658 · Gustav#3658
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kenyon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kenyon and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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