Kanye

Where Kanye comes from

Evidently from Igbo Kanye, although inspiration from other African languages may have contributed. The verb is a reference to Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
— Wiktionary's entry for Kanye
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 2002
    First appearance
    #10,667 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 2004
    Peak, #486
    509 babies named Kanye — more than any year before or since.
  3. 2005
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #892.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name.
Namesakes

No widely known Kanye turns up in the encyclopedias yet — the name is still all theirs to make famous.

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.