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
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #291 among boys — 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 — more than any year before or since.
  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.