A male name. Gaelic Caioneach ‘handsome’, ‘comely'. The Welsh form of the name is found in Cennydd s. of Gildas a 6th-C Welsh saint. It has been a favourite name in Scotland from the time of Kenneth (I), MacAlpine (d. 860), 1st King of Scotland. In recent times it has been increasingly used in England by families with no Scottish connexions. Often abbreviated to Ken.

(For an early reference, see at Finella) Deriving from Celtic,—it is Scottish,—it means ‘handsome’. There is a canonized abbot, more usually known as Canice or Canicus, who bore this name and, in C6, preached in Scotland and throughout Ireland; he is the patron saint of the city of Kilkenny.

The English form of the Gaelic name Coinneach; perhaps from caoin-neach, a kind, gentle, or mild man.

A Celtic name, meaning: Comely: leader.

A Gaelic name: Coinneach, Middle Gaelic Coinndech, Coinnidh, g. Coinndigh, g. (M‘V.), Old Gaelic Cainnech, g. Caennig, Early Irish Cainnig, gen., Irish Latin Cainnechus (Adamnan): *Cannico-s, “fair one,” from the same stem as cannach (root gas), q.v. The English Kenneth is a different word: it is the old Scotch king name Cinœd (Early Irish form), Old Gaelic Cinathd, Irish Cinaedh, “fire-sprung,” from cin of cinn and aed of Mackay.

[Lachlan] A Gaelic name: Lachlann (Dial. Lachlainn), Lachunn, Middle Gaelic Lochlinn, g. (M‘V.), Lochloinn, n. and g., Lachlan, g. (1467 MS.), Irish Lochlainn Mac Lochlainn (F.M., year 1060); probably from Lochlann, Scandinavia, possibly commencing as Mac-Lochlainne, a Scandinavian (“son of L.”). Lochlann evidently means “Fjord-land.”