Kenneth

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title: "Kenneth" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["english-language-masculine-given-names", "english-masculine-given-names", "masculine-given-names", "scottish-masculine-given-names"] topic_path: "general/english-language-masculine-given-names" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox name"]

Field	Value
name	Kenneth
image	File:History-kenneth.jpg
caption	Kenneth McAlpin
pronunciation
gender	Male
meaning	'Handsome', 'fire-born'
language	English
shortform	Ken
related names	Cainnech/Coinneach, Cináed
::

| name = Kenneth | image = File:History-kenneth.jpg | caption = Kenneth McAlpin | pronunciation = | gender = Male | meaning = 'Handsome', 'fire-born' | region = | language = English | origin = | alternative spelling = | nickname = | shortform = Ken | variant forms = | related names = Cainnech/Coinneach, Cináed | name day = | derived = | popularity = | footnotes =

Kenneth is a given name of Gaelic origin. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: Cainnech and Cináed. The modern Gaelic form of Cainnech is Coinneach; the name was derived from a byname meaning "handsome", "comely".

Etymology

The second part of the name Cinaed is derived either from the Celtic *aidhu, meaning "fire", or else Brittonic jʉ:ð meaning "lord".

People

• Cainnech of Aghaboe (515/16–600), Ireland, Saint Canice or Saint Kenneth
• Saint Cenydd or Welsh Saint Keneth, (a separate individual from above)
• Kenneth (1927–2013), born Kenneth Battelle, American celebrity hairdresser
• Kenneth MacAlpin, Kenneth I of Scotland
• Kenneth II of Scotland
• Kenneth III of Scotland
• Kenneth J. Alford (1881–1945), English composer
• Kenneth Allen (murderer) (born 1942), American murderer
• Kenneth Allott (1912–1973), Anglo-Irish poet and academic
• Kenneth Alwyn (1925–2020), English conductor and composer
• Kenneth Amis (b. 1970), Bermudian tuba player
• Kenneth Anger (b. 1927), American avant-garde-film director
• Kenneth Arrow (1921–2017), American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics winner, 1972
• Kenneth Atchity (born 1944), American producer, author, columnist, and book reviewer
• Kenneth Bager (b. 1962), Danish musician and record producer
• Kenneth Bainbridge (1904–1996), American physicist
• Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking (b. 1934), UK Home Secretary
• Kenneth Barner, American engineer
• Kenneth Beard (1927–2010), English Cathedral Organist
• Kenneth Benton (1909–1999), British MI6 officer and author
• Kenneth Bianchi (b. 1951), American serial killer, one of the Hillside Stranglers
• Kenneth Bigley (1942–2004), contractor, beheaded on television in Iraq
• Kenneth W. Bilby (1918–1997), American recipient of the Legion of Honour, executive vice president of RCA, and author
• Kenneth Blevins, American drummer and percussionist
• Sir Kenneth Bloomfield (b. 1931), former Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service
• Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993), economist
• Kenneth Box (b. 1930), British track and field sprinter
• Sir Kenneth Branagh (b. 1960), Irish Shakespearean and film actor
• Kenneth Bressett (b. 1928), American numismatist
• Kenneth Bron (Kenny B) (b. 1961), Surinamese-born singer
• Kenneth Bruffee (1934–2019), Professor emeritus at Brooklyn College
• Kenneth Burke (1897–1993), American literary theorist and philosopher
• Kenneth Calman (b. 1941), English chief medical officer
• Kenneth Carpenter (b. 1949), paleontologist
• Kenneth G. Caulton, inorganic chemist and professor
• Kenneth Chenault (b. 1951), former CEO of American Express
• Kenneth Arnold Chesney (b. 1968), American country singer
• Kenneth Church (1930–2020), Canadian jockey
• Kenneth Clark (1903–1983), English art historian
• Kenneth Clark (psychologist)
• Kenneth Clarke (b. 1940), Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Kenneth Cole (b. 1954), American clothing designer
• Kenneth Colley (b. 1937), English actor
• Kenneth R. Conklin, activist
• Kenneth Connor (1918–1993), British comedic actor
• Kenneth Cope (b. 1931), English actor
• Kenneth Cope (musician) (b. 1961), Mormon music composer
• Kenneth Darling (1909–1998), British general
• Kenneth C. Davis, American historian, author
• Kenneth Dougall (b. 1993), Australian football player
• Kenneth Dover (1920–2010), British academic
• Kenneth "K. K." Downing (b. 1951), guitarist
• Kenneth J. Dunkley (b. 1939), American inventor
• Kenneth Easterday (1973–2016), American man born with the rare disability, sacral agenesis
• Kenneth Edmonds ("Babyface") (b. 1959), American R&B singer
• Kenneth Erskine (b. 1963), serial killer
• Kenneth H. Fake (1895–1963), American politician
• Kenneth Farrow (American football) (b. 1993), American football player
• Kenneth Fearing (1902–1961), American poet
• Kenneth Feinberg (b. 1945), American attorney
• Kenneth Ford (disambiguation), several people
• Kenneth Frampton (b. 1930), British architect and architecture critic
• Kenneth Gainwell (b. 1999), American football player
• John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006), Canadian-American economist
• Kenneth Gamble (b. 1943), songwriter and producer
• Kenneth Gasana (b. 1984), Rwandan basketball player
• Kenneth J. Gergen (b. 1935), American psychologist
• Kenneth R. Giddens (1908–1993), broadcaster
• Kenneth Gittens (born 1971), Virgin Islands politician
• Kenneth Gorelick (Kenny G) (b. 1956), smooth jazz professional saxophonist
• Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932), British author
• Kenneth C. Griffin (b. 1968), American entrepreneur and billionaire
• Kenneth E. Hagin (1917–2003), Pentecostal minister
• Kenneth L. Hale (1934–2001, American linguist
• Kenneth Halliwell (1926–1967), British actor, lover and murderer of Joe Orton
• Kenneth Ham (b. 1954), American astronaut
• Kenneth "Ken" Holtzman (b. 1945), American Major League Baseball pitcher
• Kenneth "Ken" Hon, American geologist and head of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
• Kenneth Horne (1907–1969), English actor and comedian
• Kenneth Gardner Hughes (b. 1954), Canadian politician
• Kenneth Hutchings (1882–1916), English amateur cricketer
• Kenneth Irons, comic book character in Witchblade
• Kenneth E. Iverson (1920–2004), Canadian computer scientist, developed the APL programming language
• Kenneth Jamieson, American politician
• Kenneth V. Jones (1924–2020), British composer
• Kenneth Katzner (1930–2003), American linguist
• Kenneth Kaunda (1924–2021), first President of Zambia
• Kenneth Keating (1900–1975), US Senator
• Kenneth Kedi (b. 1971), Marshallese politician
• Kenneth Kendall (1924–2012), British newsreader
• Kenneth Keith Kelley (1901–1991), American chemist
• Kenneth Kennedy (speed skater) (1913–1985), Australian Winter Olympian
• Jonathan King (b. 1944), born Kenneth George King, pop music mogul
• Kenneth Kitchen (b. 1932), British historian, Egyptologist
• Kenneth Klassen (b. 1951), Canadian sex tourist
• Kenneth Koch (1925–2002), American poet
• Kenneth Kraus (b. 1956), former United States Marine
• Kenneth Law (born 1965), Canadian man who was charged with shipping sodium nitrite
• Kenneth Lawson (b. 1963), law professor and former lawyer
• Kenneth Lay (1942–2006), American businessman, former CEO of Enron
• Kenneth Little (1908–1991), English academic
• Kenneth Livingstone (b. 1945), English politician
• Kenneth Ma (b. 1974), Hong Kong actor
• Kenneth Mackintosh (1875–1957), justice of the Washington Supreme Court
• Kenneth McDavid, American murder victim
• Kenneth McDuff (1946–1998), American serial killer
• Kenneth McKellar (1869–1957), American politician
• Kenneth McKellar (1927–2010), Scottish singer
• Kenneth Meers (1960–1992), American murder victim
• Kenneth Barbour Montgomery (1897–1965), English World War I flying ace
• Kenneth More (1914–1982), English actor (Genevieve, Reach for the Sky)
• Kenneth Murdock (born 1963), Canadian truck driver who was a hitman for the Musitano crime family of Hamilton, Ontario
• Kenneth Murray (disambiguation), multiple people
• Kenneth O'Keefe (b. 1969), American-Irish-Palestinian activist
• Kenneth Roderick O'Neal (1908–1989), African-American architect
• Kenneth Odumegwu (born 2000), Nigerian-American football player
• Kenneth A. Oye (b. 1949), Associate Professor of Political Science and Engineering Systems, MIT
• Kenneth Parnell (1931–2008), American convicted sex offender, child rapist, and kidnapper
• Kenneth Paschal (born 1966), American politician
• Kenneth Perez (b. 1974), Danish footballer
• Kenneth Lee Pike (1912–2000), American linguist and anthropologist
• Kenneth Platts (1946–1989), British composer
• Kenneth Ramchand (b. 1939), Trinidad and Tobago academic and writer
• Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982), American poet
• Kenneth Robinson (British politician) (1911–1996), British politician and broadcaster
• Kenneth Rose (1924–2014), royal biographer
• Kenneth Ross, Scottish-American screenwriter of the films The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, etc.
• Kenneth G. Ross (b. 1941), Australian playwright, and screenwriter of the film Breaker Morant
• Kenneth Schellenberger (b. 1948), Canadian politician
• Kenneth Searight (1883–1957), British writer and linguist
• Kenneth Shaw ("Buzz" Shaw) (b. 1939), American academic, college chancellor
• Kenneth Slessor (1901–1971), Australian poet
• Kenneth Starr (b. 1946), American lawyer, special investigator of U.S. President Bill Clinton
• Kenneth M. Taylor (1919–2006), American WWII pilot
• Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet (1923–2006), Canadian businessman, billionaire
• Kenneth Tigar (b. 1942), American actor
• Kenneth Tolon II (b. 1981), college football player
• Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980), English theatre critic and writer
• Kenneth Vance, American politician
• Kenneth N. Waltz (1924–2013), American political scientist
• Kenneth Warren (1926–2019), British Conservative Party politician
• Kenneth Welsh (1942–2022), Canadian actor
• Kenneth Williams (1926–1988), English comedian and actor
• Kenneth G. Wilson (1936–2013), American theoretical physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1982

Fictional characters

• Kenneth Widmerpool, in Anthony Powell's novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time
• Kenneth Parcell, in the sitcom 30 Rock

References

References

1. (2006). "A dictionary of first names". [[Oxford University Press]].
2. Busse, Peter E.. (2006). "Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia". [[ABC-CLIO]].
3. "Approaching the Pictish language: historiography, early evidence and the question of Pritenic".

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