Explore the Family Name Kender

The meaning of Kender

Hungarian: metonymic occupational name for someone who grew hemp or used it to make ropes and sacks, or a topographic name for someone who lived near a field of hemp, from kender ‘hemp’, a word of Old Turkish origin.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Kender in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Kender saw a slight decrease from 2000 to 2010. In the year 2000, Kender was ranked 38,263rd in terms of the most popular surnames in the United States, with 544 individuals bearing this last name. By 2010, the rank had slipped to 43,206 and the count dropped to 500, representing an 8.09% decrease in people with this surname. The proportion per 100k also fell by 15.0%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#38,263	#43,206	-12.92%
Count	544	500	-8.09%
Proportion per 100k	0.2	0.17	-15%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kender

The ethnic identity associated with the surname Kender also underwent changes between 2000 and 2010, according to the Decennial U.S. Census. The majority of individuals with this surname identified as White in both years, although this percentage decreased slightly from 93.93% in 2000 to 91% in 2010. Meanwhile, those identifying as Hispanic increased significantly from 0.92% to 3.00%. Representation of the surname among Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native communities were negligible or suppressed for privacy in both years. The proportion of individuals identifying as two or more races increased notably from 1.29% to 2.40%, while the percentage of Black individuals with the surname Kender decreased from 2.94% to 2.20%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	93.93%	91%	-3.12%
Hispanic	0.92%	3%	226.09%
Two or More Races	1.29%	2.4%	86.05%
Black	2.94%	2.2%	-25.17%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.92%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%