Kenneth

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". A short form of Kenneth is Ken.

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

 * (see also Ken (name) and Kenny)

• 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 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 Bressett (b. 1928), American numismatist

• 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 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 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 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 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 Lawson (b. 1963), law professor and former lawyer

• Kenneth Lay (1942–2006), American businessman, former CEO of Enron

• Kenneth Livingstone (b. 1945), English politician

• Kenneth Ma (b. 1974), Hong Kong actor

• Kenneth McKellar (1869–1957), American politician

• Kenneth McKellar (1927–2010), Scottish singer

• 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 Parcell from 30 Rock

• 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, character in Anthony Powell's novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time

Places
In the United States: In Scotland:
 * Kenneth, Minnesota
 * Kenneth City, Florida
 * Inch Kenneth, an island off the west coast of the Isle of Mull

Other

 * "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", a song by R.E.M.
 * Hurricane Kenneth
 * Cyclone Kenneth