The name Kilgeever derives from the Irish Cill Íomhair, meaning the church of Íomhar, pointing to an early medieval ecclesiastical foundation associated with a local saint whose cult has left only faint traces in the landscape around him.

Kilgeever sits within a broader sacred geography. The site is linked to the Croagh Patrick pilgrimage tradition, one of the oldest in Ireland, and the surrounding townland preserves traces of early Christian activity including a holy well and the remains of a medieval church. Holy wells in Ireland were typically places of pre-Christian veneration that were absorbed into Christian practice, often associated with a patron saint and visited on a particular feast day for prayers and ritual circuits known as rounds. The graveyard itself continued in use through the post-medieval period and into more recent centuries, and like many such sites along this coast it served communities whose relationship with the land and the sea shaped both life and burial practice in equal measure.