Kendrick

Meaning of Kendrick

In the quietly dazzling constellation of masculine given names, Kendrick—etymologically intertwined with the Welsh Cynwrig (“bold champion”), the Old English Cyneric (“royal power”), and the Gaelic Mac Eanraig (“son of Henry”)—reposes like a well-bound codex whose margins reveal successive layers of cultural sediment; one can almost hear a Roman scribe murmuring fortis et regalis while noting its composite meaning of courage tempered by kingly restraint. The name’s modern resonance, buoyed by laureled lyricist Kendrick Lamar and an ensemble of gridiron and hardwood bearers, offers an instructive case study in sociolinguistic diffusion: since the early 1970s its frequency in U.S. birth registries has traced a gentle sine wave, never vanishing into obscurity yet prudently sidestepping the perils of overexposure—a demographic performance more tortoise than hare, if one permits a touch of Aesopian levity. Thus, to bestow Kendrick upon a newborn son is to graft him onto a venerable lineage of valor and intellect, a lineage that whispers of mist-clad Celtic hills even as it pulses to contemporary hip-hop beats, conferring a name both ancient in pedigree and refreshingly current in cadence.

Pronunciation

American English

• Pronunced as KEN-drik (/ˈkɛn.drɪk/)

• Kendrix
• Kendry
• Kendell
• Kendrik