Why is 2010s movie Star Trek called the Kelvin timeline?
I'm sure there's a valid reason, but I've got no idea what it is. Why "Kelvin?" Is that a reference to a character in the original Star Trek continuity?
Because JJ Abrams uses the name Kelvin in a lot of his works. I think it was his grandfather or something. But in Star Trek specifically, it is the name of the ship around which the events that the divergent timeline started.