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Girl · Irish Gaelic
Kennedy
Say it: KEN-uh-dee
Meaning
From the Irish surname Ó Cinnéide 'descendant of Cinnéide', a personal name usually analysed as ceann 'head' plus a second element read as 'ugly' or 'helmeted'.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Used as an American given name after John F. Kennedy, it became mainly a girls' name from the 1990s.
Its wave through time
Popular now
In the United States
- 85,125 babies given this name since 1912
- At its height in 2015, about 1 in 394 girls
- 3,482 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Kennedi, Kenadie
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.