Kenya

Where Kenya comes from

Kenya hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1952
    First appearance
    #5,563 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1971
    Kenya Moore born
    American actress, model, author, and entrepreneur
  3. 1973
    Peak, #275
    894 babies named Kenya — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1981
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #491.
  5. 1993
    Kenya Kinski-Jones born
    American fashion model
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Kenya Moore · American actress, model, author, and entrepreneur, born 1971
  • Kenya Kinski-Jones · American fashion model, born 1993
  • Kenya D. Williamson · American writer, born 1945
  • Kenya Mori · Mexican actress, born 1976
  • Kenya Grace · South African-born British singer, songwriter, and record producer, born 1998

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.