Kendra
- Pronunciation
- [Ken-dra]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- "Prophetess."
- Origin
- Anglo
About the Name Kendra
Kendra has multiple proposed origins. The most credible English line connects Kendra to a feminine variation of Kendrick (see separate entry on Kendrick for the Welsh-Old English etymology). A separate Welsh line connects Kendra to the Welsh cain (beautiful, fair) plus a feminine ending. A third Old English line connects Kendra to the Anglo-Saxon meaning "prophetess" or "knowledge."
Notable bearers include American basketball player Kendra Wilkinson (using Wilkinson as a surname, born 1985, the American TV personality of E!'s The Girls Next Door); American softball player Kendra Lee; and the contemporary American singer Kendra Erika.
Kendra's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed into the US top 200 girls' rank by 1985 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the multi-cultural etymological flexibility (Welsh/Old English), the popular two-syllable -ra ending family (Kendra, Sandra, Maira, Mira), and the modern visual presence with the K-spelling. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-American. The name reads as both classical-Welsh and contemporary American. Common nicknames Ken (gender-neutral), Kenni, Kendi, and the rare Dra each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Kendra, Kindra, and Kendrah have their own SSA tracking. International variants are minimal since the name's first-name use is essentially American.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kendra
US Popularity History (1987–2025)
Annual US births named Kendra by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1987 with 3,841 girls named Kendra (girl rank #77 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #849 for girls (320 US births). That's 772 places below its 1987 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 Kendra 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 Kendra the strongest states are New Mexico, West Virginia, Texas.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | #279 | 22 |
| 2 | West Virginia | #306 | 18 |
| 3 | Texas | #323 | 1,070 |
| 4 | Idaho | #374 | 22 |
| 5 | Nebraska | #402 | 18 |
| 6 | Arizona | #450 | 163 |
| 7 | Kansas | #450 | 38 |
| 8 | Oregon | #451 | 25 |
| 9 | Nevada | #489 | 19 |
| 10 | Utah | #493 | 56 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | #867 | 155 |
| 2 | Michigan | #854 | 68 |
| 3 | Georgia | #829 | 98 |
| 4 | Alabama | #792 | 30 |
| 5 | New York | #775 | 210 |
| 6 | North Carolina | #737 | 107 |
| 7 | New Jersey | #736 | 96 |
| 8 | Tennessee | #712 | 82 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #712 | 25 |
| 10 | Illinois | #711 | 137 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kendra in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Kendra?
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 Kendra to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kendra 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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