Keon

Keon is an Irish surname turned first name, primarily discovered by and adopted within the African-American community in the United States. Keon is basically an Anglicization of the Gaelic surname MacEoin meaning “descended from Eoin” with Eoin being another Gaelic form of John. So Keon essentially has the same root etymology as John, which is from the Hebrew meaning “God is gracious” (see the name John for more detail). The name John was popularized throughout the British Isles after the Crusades (a series of religious wars between the 11th and 13th centuries). Many Christian knights and peasants throughout Western Europe made their way east to the Holy Lands in order to restore Christian access to the sacred city of Jerusalem and to liberate the Eastern Christians from invading and occupying Turkish Sunni Muslims. When the so-called pilgrim-warriors returned home from their crusades reinvigorated by their faith, they brought the Biblical name John back to England (in its anglicized form). From that point on, there was no stopping the popularity of this name throughout Western Europe – and every language had its own version of the name. Among Gaelic people of Ireland and Scotland, the following variations were created from the English John: Seán, Ian, Shane and Eoin. It’s from the surname (Mac)Eoin that we get the name Keon. Incidentally, Keoni is also the Hawaiian form of John.