The KENNEDY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	171,636	130	0.064	636
United States (1880 census)	40,566	113	0.081	811
Change since 1880	+131070	-17	-0.017	-175
Other Countries
Australia	14,276	71	0.087	873
United Kingdom	35,335	131	0.077	769

Top States for KENNEDY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
California	12,373	217	0.037	365
Texas	10,900	207	0.052	523
Florida	10,456	132	0.065	654
Pennsylvania	9,558	67	0.078	778
New York	9,057	116	0.048	477
Top States for KENNEDY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
South Carolina	4,193	111	0.105	1,045
Mississippi	2,885	120	0.101	1,014
Maine	1,241	133	0.097	973
Alabama	4,310	125	0.097	969
Massachusetts	5,554	78	0.087	875

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called KENNEDY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called KENNEDY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called KENNEDY in California than any other state, but you are more likely to find a KENNEDY by picking someone at random in South Carolina than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of KENNEDY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the KENNEDY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the KENNEDY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of KENNEDY in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Asian/Pacific	790	0.46
White (Caucasian)	142,406	82.97
Black/African American	22,278	12.98
Mixed Race	2,403	1.4
White (Hispanic)	2,695	1.57
Native American/Alaskan	1,064	0.62

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the KENNEDY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of KENNEDY in historical publications

From the Gaelic or Celtic words Kean-na-ty; the head of the house, or chief of the clan. Ceannaide signifies also a shopkeeper, a merchant.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

KENNEDY. Celtic. Cean-7ia-tighe, meaning, it is said, the head of a sept or clan. The family descend from the ancient earls of Carrick in Ayrshire, and seem to have changed their name from Carrick to Kennedy in the XIV. cent. The chief was K. of Dunure, afterwards Earl of Cassilis (now Marquis of Ailsa). In the XVI. cent, the power of tliis great house in the shires of Ayr and Galloway was set forth in a popular rhyme : —

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to KENNEDY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as KENNEDY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.