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Kempo and Kenpo
Interchangeable terms
There is a lot of confusion about use of Kenpo with an "n" versus Kempo with an "m". Linguistically, and from a Japanese point of view, Kenpo and Kempo are entirely interchangeable. The Japanese don't distinguish between the sounds "ken" and "kem", no matter what the sequence of characters is.
How you write it (Kenpo or Kempo) in the West, however, simply depends on which "Romanization" system you use. Both "Ken" and "Kem" represent the same hiragana or kanji character in Japanese.
The translators of several early karate books written by Okinawan masters also chose the spelling "Kempo". This included Funakoshi's (founder of Shotokan Karate) 1922 book Ryukyu Kempo: Tode (Okinawan Fist Fighting Karate), the 1926 book by Motobu, Okinawan Kempo Tode-jutsu Kumite (Karate Techniques for Sparring), and the 1932 book called Kempo Gaisetsu by Hotakada Mizu.