Keven
Masculine · “of gentle birth”
Keven is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 8,752 boys against 130 girls since 1880.
Keven is Kevin with one vowel changed, and the underlying name is one of the great naming successes of the twentieth century: an Irish hermit saint's name that was almost unused outside Ireland in 1900 and was in the American top twenty by 1960. This spelling peaked in 1967, at the crest of that rise.
How old is the name Keven?
Keven first appears in US birth records in 1930 — 95 years ago. The typical Keven alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 8,000 people named Keven are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keven most popular?
Keven peaked in 1967, reaching #595 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 5,266 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From caomh to Keven
The story of Keven
Saint Kevin founded the monastery at Glendalough in County Wicklow in the sixth century and is one of the patron saints of Dublin; the stories about him — the blackbird that nested in his outstretched hand, the years in a cave above the lake — are among the best known in Irish hagiography. The name stayed Irish until the twentieth century, then traveled with Irish emigration and became a general English-language name: American use rose from almost nothing in the 1920s to the top twenty by 1960 and stayed high for two decades. Keven belongs to the respelling wave that followed, and it uses the plainest device available — one vowel, everything else unchanged.
Meaning
of gentle birth; beloved
Irish Caoimhin is built on caomh, 'gentle, kind, beloved, noble', with a diminutive ending — so the sense is something like 'gentle one' or 'of noble birth'. The word caomh is still current in Irish. The anglicized spelling Kevin fixes a pronunciation that the Irish orthography does not obviously suggest, which is normal for Irish names in English. The derivation is not disputed.
How the name formed
- caomh
- Caoimhin
- Kevin
- Keven
Related forms: Caoimhin · Kevin · Kevin
Pronouncing Keven
KEV-in
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ending reduced to a schwa. Identical to Kevin; the two spellings sound the same and differ only on paper.
Nicknames for Keven
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1930
- Most boys named
- 2007201 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #595reached in 1967
- Change vs 2023
- −6.3%15 in 2025, from 16
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Keven in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caoimhin in Irish — related form
- Kevin in English — spelling variant
- Kevin in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kevens among us
people named Keven are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Keven
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Glynn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keven's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Glynn climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Glynn's path sketches the road Keven is walking now.
Keven sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Keven beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keven in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, warm and expressible in three words.
- Kev is a universally understood short form.
- The sound is entirely familiar, so only the spelling needs confirming.
- It will be corrected to Kevin by essentially everyone writing it down.
- The name's curve is firmly mid-century, which places a bearer's generation.
- The respelling changes nothing audible, which some adults read as an error.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Keven to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Keven? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Keven
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kevens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,000 people named Keven are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keven in 2025?
- Keven ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keven?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Keven — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keven with classmates?
- Keven will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keven
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keven? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keven and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle