[m000]

Check closely the wikipedia list: The name became truly popular only after 1923, when Atatürk established the Republic of Turkey, and it's mostly popular among Turkish people.

So, even though Atatürk was not the first person to be named Kemal, he practically "owns" the name today.

[zaid_brilliant]

Kemal is an Arabic word. And its a loan word in Persian. And from the influence of Persian & Arabic its used heavily in Turkic and Indo-Aryan languages (Turkish, Urdu/Hindi).

It was mainstream even before Ataturk in India/Iran (Fars territory). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Kemal