Kendall
- Pronunciation
- [Ken-dall]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From The Bright Valley
- Origin
- Celtic
About the Name Kendall
Kendall is a Celtic-origin name with the meaning "from the bright valley." The name derives from a place name — specifically from the Cumbrian town of Kendal in northern England, whose own name comes from the Old English and Celtic elements meaning "valley of the River Kent." As with many English place-name surnames that became given names, Kendall entered first-name use through the surname-to-given-name pathway common in Anglo-American naming tradition. The "bright valley" gloss reflects a popular etymology of the place name's components.
Kendall appears in the US Social Security top-1000 as a male name from 2000 and peaked in that same year at rank #360. The name remained on the chart through 2018, recording 250 births at rank #873 in that final year. Total top-1000-qualifying births came to approximately 7,948. Kendall has also circulated as a female name in the same era, a crossover pattern typical of surname-derived names that carry no inherently gendered associations. Recorded variants include Kendal, Kendale, Kendel, Kendell, Kendyl, and Kenny.
Kendall has a clean, two-syllable structure and a surname feel that sits well in the American tradition of dignified place-name given names. Its understated masculine elegance kept it visible on the chart for nearly two decades — a testament to the staying power of well-worn surname names in American culture.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kendall
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Kendall by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2012 with 2,625 girls named Kendall (girl rank #116 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #328 for girls (932 US births). That's 212 places below its 2012 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Kendall Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Kendall the strongest states are North Dakota, Rhode Island, Alaska.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | #142 | 31 |
| 2 | Rhode Island | #148 | 21 |
| 3 | Alaska | #152 | 17 |
| 4 | West Virginia | #163 | 105 |
| 5 | Delaware | #166 | 43 |
| 6 | Maine | #171 | 43 |
| 7 | New Hampshire | #188 | 39 |
| 8 | South Dakota | #190 | 32 |
| 9 | Michigan | #190 | 457 |
| 10 | Ohio | #191 | 571 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #519 | 654 |
| 2 | Oregon | #445 | 87 |
| 3 | Arizona | #424 | 153 |
| 4 | Washington | #424 | 164 |
| 5 | Colorado | #409 | 126 |
| 6 | Nevada | #388 | 58 |
| 7 | New York | #359 | 459 |
| 8 | Utah | #342 | 133 |
| 9 | New Jersey | #338 | 242 |
| 10 | Oklahoma | #330 | 118 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kendall in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kendal | From The Bright Valley | Male | Celtic |
| Kendale | Royal Valley. Surname Referring To Kent In England. | Male | English |
| Kendel | Royal Valley. Surname Referring To Kent In England. | Male | English |
| Kendell | Royal Valley. Surname Referring To Kent In England. | Male | English |
| Kendyl | Royal Valley Referring To Kent In England. | Female | English |
| Kenny | Handsome | Male | Irish |
Looking for names like Kendall?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Kendall to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kendall against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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