Kelvin

Kelvin is a modern 20th century coinage, a name taken from a river located in Scotland which flows for a mere 22 miles southwest from the hills of Central Scotland to the River Clyde in Glasgow. Just as the masculine given name Clyde originated from a Scottish river, so too did Kelvin (although Kelvin is much more modern in terms of usage). A famous quasi-bearer of this name is Lord Kelvin (aka William Thompson, 1824-1907). He took his title of Lord Kelvin in honor of the river which flowed past the University of Glasgow where he worked as a professor and made great strides in the laws of thermodynamics (the kelvin scale is named after him). When and how the Kelvin River was named is unclear, and the etymology of the word is also uncertain. Some sources claim Kelvin means “narrow waters” while others assert it translates to “ship of friends” or “river man”. Kelvin was converted into a masculine given name in Scotland and Northern England sometime around the 1930s and eventually spread to the United States in the 1950s where is was quickly adopted by African-Americans. Kelvin may also have been influenced by the marriage of names like Kevin and Melvin, or else a slight variation of Calvin.