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Kenshin

#7,960 in 2025Boys' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Kenshin has been given to 363 babies in the U.S. since 2001. In 2025 it ranked #7,960 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2003, with 23 recorded.

Babies named Kenshin, 2025

1 in 332,000

Kenshin over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kenshin: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Kenshin means

Kenshin is documented with more than one possible Japanese character combination. The Latin-letter spelling records a pronunciation; it does not specify one unique kanji spelling or one universal meaning.

Possible character meanings include humble, modest, trust, believe.

Origin, language, and formation

Kenshin is used in Cebuano. Its origins include Japanese.

Kenshin comes through Japanese けんしん.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 363 boys were recorded with the name Kenshin between 2001 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 23 in 2003; its best national rank was #3,786 in 2003.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,847 in 2020 to #7,960 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #7,312 in 2015 to #7,960 in 2025.

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 Kenshin?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 332,000
10 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 171,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,960
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
229,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kenshin 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 229,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kenshin. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kenshins were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kenshin was born before 2013 — so the typical Kenshin is around 12 today.

Median birth year
2013
About 12 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
43.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
363
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 43.8% of all recorded uses (159).

Is Kenshin 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
+5,353
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,113
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−648
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.91×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
43.5%
Peak was 2003 (23)
Years since peak
22
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
50.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,786
2003

Spellings of Kenshin

Kenshin is not the most common spelling — Keshon is, with 44.4% against Kenshin's 13.0%.

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 Kenshin is used

Across 1910–2025, Kenshin was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 512,727 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

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. Kenshin has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kenshin around the world

Where Kenshin 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
    2024–2024
    #5,120
    in 2024
  • Canada
    2015–2017
    #2,944
    in 2017

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Kenshin by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,960
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,113
Best rank ever
#3,786
2003
Peak year
2003
23 that year
First recorded
2001
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
363
Count in 2025
10

Names similar to Kenshin

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

KensleyKenstonKendenKenielKennielKendaleKendryKendrewKensonKennerKentleyKenrickKendrikKentrelKendrixKentaroKentrailKenyataKenichiKendrellKendonKenzellKendrielKennett

Sibling names for Kenshin

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 Kenshin

Top names of 2003, Kenshin's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2003Boys' names starting with K