Kennedy
The name Kennedy seems to mean “covered leader”, from Irish & Scottish ceann-eide.
As of ThePeerage.com lists over a 1000 Kennedy people, making this one of the most prolific aristocratic names.
- Kennedy Clark (1)
- Kennedy of Cradley (1)
- Kennedy of Southwark (1)
- Kennedy of The Shaws (1)
- Kennedy (1116)
- Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick (26)
- Kennedy-Erskine (16)
- Kennedy-Skipton (2)
On the genealogy sites, you can also see that the famous US Kennedy clan are direct descendants of the Irish & Scottish lords Kennedy (apart from being descendants of more ancient aristocracies).
The name Kennedy even has its own Wiktionary entry: It is explained as meaning “ugly head”.
Kennedy : a surname of Irish or of Scottish Gaelic origin; Derived from the Irish Ó Ceannéidigh or Scottish Gaelic Ceannaideach, both “descendant of Head (ceann) + Ugly (éidigh, aideach)”. — English (Wikt)
Now we may all hate the smug mugs of those ultra-corrupt Kennedys, and their toothy hallmark grin. But who would name his child “ugly head”? And even if someone did, who would keep this name, and pass it on to his own children, for over 1000 years? No one. The claim that the name means “ugly” is therefore clearly a lie.
But the first part meaning “head” is very interesting: In almost all languages, “head” also means “boss”. This is true not only for English, but also for the Semitic languages. In fact, names like Rose, Rice, Morris may all be transcriptions of Semitic רש rš which means “head” & “boss”.
Since most spook names with 2 components mean “hidden leader”, this would also be a possible solution for Kennedy. And indeed, in Irish (Gaeilge) & Scottish (Gaelic) we can find a word root that means “clothing” & “cover”, and matches the pronunciation of Kennedy even better than the official “ugly” derivation.
Irish, Scottish ceann = head, boss; eide = clothe, cover
ceann : head; head of cabbage, capitulum; end, extremity; roof; one; From Middle Irish cenn, from Old Irish cenn (compare Manx kione), from Proto-Celtic *kʷennom — Irish (Wikt)
ceann : head (of a body or a group of people); end (the extreme part of something); From Old Irish cenn (compare Manx kione), from Proto-Celtic *kʷennom — Scottish Gaelic (Wikt)
éide : clothes, clothing; armor, panoply; livery, uniform; vestments; From Middle Irish éted (“clothing”), from Old Irish étiud. — Irish (Wikt)
eid : clothe, cover; dh’eid: clothed; eididh: shall clothe — Scottish Gaelic (Armstrong)
My understanding of Irish & Scottish is too poor to guess the exact grammar here, but this seems to be the solution:
Kennedy is a transcription of Irish & Scottish ceann-eide, which means “clothed head”, and by derivation “covered leader”, like most other spook names.
The name Kennedy is therefore also a reminder that not all puns are Semitic. Spookery may have originated with the most advanced civilizations across the Fertile Crescent, but the spooks have adapted & used many of the local languages spoken in the regions they conquered across the globe. Sometimes, solutions to puns & riddles will be found in such a local language.