Kenneth

Where Kenneth comes from

Anglicized form of two Goidelic names, Old Irish Cináed, the name of Scottish kings derived from Pictish *ᚉᚔᚅᚔᚑᚇ (Ciniod), and the saint's name Cainnech (literally “handsome”) (modern Scottish Gaelic Coinneach), as in the surname Mackenzie.
— Wiktionary's entry for Kenneth
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • 2 syllables
Kenneth through the years
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #291 among boys, with 32 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1921
    Kenneth Arrow born
    American economist
  3. 1924
    Kenneth Kaunda born
    First president of Zambia
  4. 1939
    Peak, #13
    14,715 babies named Kenneth, its best rank.
  5. 1992
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #59.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Scottish Gaelic, originally used in Scotland, popular in all English-speaking countries in the 20th century.
Namesakes
  • Kenneth Kaunda · First president of Zambia, 1924–2021
  • Kenneth Arrow · American economist, 1921–2017
  • Kenneth Branagh · British actor and filmmaker, born 1960
  • Kenneth G. Wilson · Nobel prize winning US physicist, 1936–2013
  • Kenneth MacAlpin · King of the Picts, 810–858

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.