What is Ken short for?
Ken is short for Kenneth, and it is a name of its own in the Japanese tradition. In 2025, 36 boys in the United States were given Ken as their full name, with nothing longer behind it, according to Social Security records.
The meeting point
The cleanest pair on the site: Celtic on one side, Japanese on the other.
Ken · a standalone Japanese given name: 健 "healthy, strong," also written 賢 "wise" or 剣 "sword": carried by Ken Watanabe and Ken Takakura (source)
Kenneth · short for Kenneth, which anglicizes two different Gaelic names: Coinneach, "handsome," and Cináed, traditionally "born of fire" (source)
The names behind Ken
Each count is the number of children given that name in the United States in 2025, from US Social Security records. A name given to fewer than five children in a year is left out of the published file.
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