Kendra
Meaning
modern coined name, possibly a feminine form of Kendrick
The story
Kendra is a modern coinage, most often explained as a feminine of Kendrick, whose own roots run through Welsh and Old English royal and bold words, though like most coined names it ultimately answers to sound rather than scholarship. It enters the record in the 1930s and then does something coined names almost never do: instead of spiking and vanishing, it holds a broad, level band across the 1980s through 2010s, four straight decades of steady choice, easing only in the 2020s. That plateau is Kendra's real distinction. Invented names usually burn bright and disappear with their decade; this one behaved like a classic, quietly renewed by each generation, particularly in Black American naming, until it earned a durability its etymology never promised.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Kendra peaked in the 1980s and the 2010s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
709 people · the #10,493 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 14
Among people named Kendra living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 178 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Kendra
Most people given the name Kendra in the United States were born between 1980 and 2009. The Kendra you meet today is most often in her 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Kendra deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Kendra truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Kendra fits with your family’s names and surname.
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