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The first name 
Kenneth

Kenneth is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.

Kenneth – known and loved in the US!

The name Kenneth isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Kenneth ranks 206. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 10 were named Kenneth. In total, there are currently 1,267,404 people – children, adults and seniors – named Kenneth living in the United States, which is approximately 0.38 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Kenneth

What does the name 
Kenneth mean?

Kenneth is the English variant of two Gaelic names: Cainnech and Cináed. The exact origins of these names are unclear, it is believed that they mean something like ‘handsome’.

What does 'handsome' mean? Handsome' is used to describe someone who is attractive, a person with good looks and a pleasant appearance.

Kenneth -
very popular in the 20th century

Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Kenneth is a staple in the country: Boys have been given the name Kenneth for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Kenneth is therefore one of only 442 boys’ names that have been given every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Kenneth is a very special name that peaked in popularity some time ago in the 20th century. Placed at #13 Kenneth easily made it into the top 100 boys' names of our SmartGenius statistics for male first names and has never been more popular than back in 1939.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Kenneth was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

1,297 newborn babies with the name Kenneth in 2022

As many as 1,297 babies were named Kenneth in the USA in 2022, ranking it at #256 on the list of the most popular boys' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 1882, when it was only ranked #352 of all male names in our SmartGenius statistics – back then only 22 boys were named Kenneth.

Kenneth -
especially popular in North Dakota

Kenneth is one of the most common names in the U.S. – in all states combined, 1,267,404 people would currently turn around if you called out KENNETH really loud. Across all states and age groups, this lands Kenneth on position 21 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above. With so many people named Kenneth, it’s no surprise that the name is widely used in every single state in the U.S., but would you have guessed that Kenneth is especially popular in North Dakota? Here, 1,09% of all male residents bear the name Kenneth – that is a total of 6,207 men with this popular name and no other state has as many men named Kenneth relative to its population. But that’s not all the popularity: In North Dakota Kenneth even belongs to the top 10 of all male names – the 6,207 men called Kennethelevate their name up to place #10 in the SmartGenius ranking of the most common male names for North Dakota.

Kenneth has 7 letters 
and begins with a K

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter K is a real popular first letter for boys’ names. That’s because 7.9% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters J, A and D are more common for boys' names.

With seven letters, the name Kenneth has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 7.9% of all boys' names start with a K, this initial letter occurs more than twice as often as all 26 letters on average. Interesting detail: of all the boys’ names that begin with a K, Kenneth is the most common.

Other names with 
K, e, n, n, e, t and h

If you take all the letters in the name Kenneth – K, e, n, n, e, t and h – and put them together again, you can form another name, such as Kenenth.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Kenneth

If your name is Kenneth and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Kenneth

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Kenneth, you can simply say:

Koala

Elephant

Nut

Nut

Elephant

Tiger

Hat

This is how the name Kenneth is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Kenneth in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Kenneth

Kenneth

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Kenneth

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Kenneth is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

K
E
N
N
E
T
H

Have you ever waved the name Kenneth

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

K
E
N
N
E
T
H

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Kenneth sounds like this: