Keanu Neal is major pro sports’ first Keanu, but he’s not really a Keanu Reeves fan

Keanu Reeves is an actor whose movies were really big like 20 or so years ago. He has a pretty cool name and seems like a cool dude, so most people like him.

Former Florida Gators safety Keanu Neal is named after Reeves, thanks to an elder Neal:

The family needed a “K” name. Neal’s brother had a huge say in what he should be named.

“My brother is a huge fan of Keanu Reeves, so he was like, ‘Keanu.’ (My mother) loved it and it stuck,” Neal said.

That brother, Clinton Hart, was an NFL safety for most of a decade.

“I’m not,” Neal laughed when asked if he was a big Keanu Reeves fan. “A lot of people call me ‘The Matrix,’ but I never knew why, and when I watched the movie, I didn’t really like it.”

Yeah, it’s pretty old.

The name Keanu is of Hawaiian origin, so Neal has to have some sort of island blood in him, right?

“I’m not Hawaiian, though,” he laughed.

Hey, me neither. Still a good name.

A search at Pro Football Reference turns up no other Keanus. The same goes for Basketball Reference and Hockey Reference. Baseball Reference has a couple Keanus, but it doesn’t appear either ever accumulated many numbers in the majors. The first Google result for “Keanu soccer” is this dog, who is not a professional and doesn’t count.

Keanu Asing is a pro surfer, Keanu Marsh-Brown plays in English soccer’s fifth tier, and that seems to be it for athletes.

There just are not very many other famous people with this name.

Or people in general. The only other one to make Wikipedia’s hall of Keanus is the cat in the new Key & Peele movie.

“The year when the name Keanu was most popular is 2001. In that year, the number of births is 269, which represents 0.013 percent of total male births,” reports the Social Security Administration.

Since Neal is older than 15 years of age, that means more Keanus are likely on the way. He is near the forefront of the Keanu wave, sedate and subtle as it is, like the original Keanu himself. BYU, East Tennessee State, New Mexico State and Tulsa have signed Keanus since Neal joined the Gators, with another couple listed for the future by recruiting services.

So many Keanus.

No, nowhere near that many.