>>I think that's true (that it's Irish in origin), but I do seem to have known a couple of Jewish Kevins. In fact, if you check out my name (Alan), you'll find that it is also Irish in origin (well, Celtic anyway).
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>Yeah, I'm not surprised. I have a cousin named Alan as well. He's named for our common grandfather, Adolph, as is my brother, Aaron. (Not surprising that we didn't carry the original along.)

I was named after my mother's favourite brother 'Abie' who was killed in WWII. I'm glad she adapted it and didn't just give me his name though.

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>FWIW, American Jews (and probably Canadian Jews) have a longish history of giving their children non-Jewish names, and doing it in such numbers that the names "become" Jewish. A classic example of this is Irving. In a certain generation, virtually every Irving you encounter is Jewish, but the name is English or Scottish.
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>What happened is that Jewish parents in America wanted to give their children names that would help them blend into the mainstream. So boys who would have been Isaac or Israel in the old country became Irving. My father-in-law is Bernard rather than Berel (his Hebrew/Yiddish name) or Baruch.
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>This trend seems to have stopped now that it's not a handicap to be Jewish in America. There are still Jews giving trendy or different names, but the motivations are different. And lots of American Jews are back to giving Hebrew and Biblical names. Of course now, as Tracy pointed out, many of those names have become quite trendy themselves.
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>Tamar