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Kenji

#944 in 2025Boys' name

堅持: persistence, through けんじ

Kenji has been given to 5,657 babies in the U.S. since 1913. In 2025 it ranked #944 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2022, with 337 recorded.

Babies named Kenji, 2025

1 in 13,300

Kenji over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kenji: meaning, origin, and history

堅持: persistence, through けんじ

Japanese

What Kenji means

Kenji belongs to the name family reached through Kenji → けんじ. Its meaning is “堅持: persistence”.

Origin, language, and formation

Kenji is used in English, Spanish and Tagalog. Its origins include Japanese.

Kenji comes through Japanese けんじ.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include けんじ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Kenji is pronounced /ˈkenʝi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,624 boys were recorded with the name Kenji between 1913 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 337 in 2022; its best national rank was #750 in 1978.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #913 in 2020 to #944 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,410 in 2015 to #944 in 2025.

In the United States, 33 girls were recorded with the name Kenji between 1975 and 2009. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1980; its best national rank was #7,746 in 1980.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Kenji?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 13,300
249 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 6,860
0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#944
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
9,230 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kenji sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5004%

Put another way: gather 9,230 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kenji. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kenjis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kenji was born before 2011 — so the typical Kenji is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
30.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
67.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
5,207
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 30.1% of all recorded uses (1,692).

Is Kenji rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−88
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−31
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+466
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.04×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
73.9%
Peak was 2022 (337)
Years since peak
3
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#750
1978

Spellings of Kenji

Kenji is not the most common spelling — Kent is, with 35.7% against Kenji's 2.9%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Kenji is used

Across 2016–2025, Kenji was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 870 boys, against 1 in 7,657 across all states with data. It was least common in Missouri (1 in 50,000).

2115 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 870
  2. 2California1 in 4,167
  3. 3Washington1 in 4,545
  4. 4Minnesota1 in 4,762
  5. 5Wisconsin1 in 4,762
  6. 6Nevada1 in 5,000
  7. 7Florida1 in 5,263
  8. 8Massachusetts1 in 6,250

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Kenji around the world

Where Kenji ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2025
    #2,269
    in 2025
  • France
    1975–2025
    #5,171
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2001–2024
    #1,390
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1990–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Kenji

People whose public names include Kenji, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Kenji by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#944
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 31
Best rank ever
#750
1978
Peak year
2022
337 that year
First recorded
1913
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,624
Count in 2025
249

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#7,746
1980
Peak year
1980
8 that year
First recorded
1975
Last recorded
2009
All-time count
33
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kenji

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KenzoKenanKenaiKendalKenyonKentonKendellKennedyKennonKentaKenethKennithBenjiKenyaKennyKennardKennanKendricKenleyKentoKentrellKendonKenneyKeno

Names with a curve like Kenji

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Kenji, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AviZevCamiloGianIdrisRowdyMeirSantanaYitzchokMassimoMaximoKarim

Sibling names for Kenji

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Kenji

Top names of 2022, Kenji's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1978Boys' names starting with KJapanese Boy Names