Kevin

Saint Kevin (d. 618) founded Glendalough abbey in the Kingdom of Leinster in 6th-century Ireland. Canonized in 1903, he is one of the patron saints of the Archdiocese of Dublin.Caomhán of Inisheer, the patron saint of Inisheer, Aran Islands, is properly anglicized Cavan or Kevan, but often also referred to as "Kevin".

The name was rarely given before the 20th century.^[3] In Ireland an early bearer of the anglicised name was Kevin Izod O'Doherty (1823–1905) a Young Irelander and politician; it gained popularity from the Gaelic revival of the late nineteenth century, with Kevin Barry and Kevin O'Higgins prominent in the Irish revolutionary period. Later it was "widely adopted throughout the English-speaking world",^[3] surging in popularity during the 1950s. In the United States the name's popularity peaked at rank 11 in 1963. It has steadily decreased in popularity since then, but was still given with moderate frequency in the 2010s, at rank 89 as of 2016.^[4] Kevin fell out of the US Top 100 the following year and now ranks at Number 156.^[5] The name followed a similar trajectory in the United Kingdom, gaining popularity in the 1950s, peaking in the 1960s, gradually declining in the 1970s to 1980s, and falling out of the top 100 most popularly given names by the 1990s.^[6]

Oxford's A Dictionary of First Names suggests that anglicized Kevin may have influenced the adoption of Kelvin (in origin a river name) as a modern given name, which peaked in popularity at about the same time, albeit to a much lesser extent (peaking at rank 209 as of 1961 in the US).^[7]

In mainland Europe, the name picked up popularity in the 1980s and 1990s via such American pop culture figures as actor Kevin Costner, singer Kevin Richardson, and, most prominently, Kevin McCallister, Macaulay Culkin's character in the Christmas comedy film Home Alone.^[8] "Kevin" was notorious for being extremely popular among lower-class parents between the end of the 1980s and the 2000s.^[8] The name peaked markedly in the early 1990s, reaching first rank in France (sometimes spelt Kévin) during 1989–1994,^[8] during 1991–1992 in Switzerland and in 1991 in Germany.^{[citation needed]} In German markets, Home Alone was released as "Kevin – Allein zu Haus".^{[citation needed]} Especially in Germany, the name became associated with low social status, an attitude popularised in German journalism based on a 2009 master thesis on primary teachers' reactions to children's given names.^[9] Kevinismus has become German short-hand for negative social preconceptions about trendy or exotic names.^[10][11] The name has had similar negative connotations in France.^[12]

• Cousin Kevin, a character in the musical film Tommy
• Kevin, a character in the Canadian drama television series Neon Rider
• Kevin, a character in Frank Miller's Sin City yarns
• Kevin, a character in Konami's role-playing game Suikoden IV
• Kevin Keene, the title character from the cartoon Captain N: The Game Master
• Kevin Arnold, the main character played by Fred Savage in the American coming-of-age, comedy-drama television series The Wonder Years
• Kevin Beckman, a character in the 2016 American supernatural comedy film Ghostbusters
• Kevin Boggs, a character in 1990 American fantasy romance movie Edward Scissorhands
• Kevin Burke, a character in the 1998 American sitcom Two of a Kind
• Kevin Butler, a fictional character in Sony's "It Only Does Everything" PS3 marketing campaign
• Kevin, a character from the cartoon Ed, Edd n Eddy
• Kevin Fischer, a character from the movie Final Destination 3
• Kevin Grant-Gomez, a character from the Disney Channel animated series Hamster & Gretel
• Kevin, a mobile crane from Thomas and Friends
• Kevin, a flightless bird from Disney-Pixar's movie Up
• Kevin, the leading minion in Minions
• Kevin McCallister, the main character from the Home Alone franchise
• Kevin the Gerbil, a British puppet seen in many productions alongside Roland Rat
• Kevin, one of the four penguins from the VeggieTales spinoff 3-2-1 Penguins!
• Kevin, the leader of the Jelly Spotters from SpongeBob SquarePants
• Kevin Owens, a character from Mr. Belvedere
• Kevin Phillips, a character in the 1994 American coming-of-age comedy-drama movie My Girl 2
• Kevin Porter, a character in the novel and Netflix series 13 Reasons Why
• Kevin Reynolds, a character from the Canadian animated TV series Supernoobs
• Kevin Tran is a prophet on the American dark fantasy television series Supernatural
• Kevin the Teenager, a character created and played by the comedian Harry Enfield

• All pages with titles beginning with Kevin
• All pages with titles beginning with Caoimh
• Caoimhe
• Caoimhin (Dungeons & Dragons), a fictional deity from Dungeons & Dragons
• German Kevinism
• Eugene – a name of Greek origin with a similar meaning
• Kavin – unrelated Tamil name
• Kevan
• Kevon
• List of Scottish Gaelic given names
• List of Irish-language given names

• Media related to Kevin (given name) at Wikimedia Commons