Kendrick
Meaning
traditionally "chief, high ruler"
The story
Kendrick sounds like a surname carved over a doorway, and that is close to its history. It is Welsh-rooted and traditionally interpreted through ideas of a chief or high ruler, a formal inheritance with plenty of weight in it. In contemporary America, however, the bearer who changed the name's temperature was Kendrick Lamar. The rapper made it intimate, restless, political, and precise, then became a Pulitzer winner, placing a first name with an old ruling gloss among the country's most storied arts honors. It lets the name hold two kinds of authority: the authority announced by a title and the authority earned by telling a community's story exceptionally well. Kendall may be the more familiar cousin, but Kendrick keeps the harder consonants and the stronger finish. It can sound inherited without feeling dusty, artistic without being delicate. A chief in the root and a laureate in the present meet without either needing a crown.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Kendrick peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
303 people · the #18,930 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 2
Among people named Kendrick living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 182 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Kendrick
Most people given the name Kendrick in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Kendrick deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Kendrick 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 Kendrick fits with your family’s names and surname.
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