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Comment by Escapado | Hacker News Reader

My name is Kevin. I'm 27 and I'm from (west) germany. Most people I get to know will bring the topic up. I got a master's degree in physics and I have heard people say something like 'your name doesn't fit your profile at all' more times than I can count. I've seen girls in my sphere discard guys on Tinder partly due to being named Kevin. People do joke about the name and that's ok. It's not terrible but it isn't great either.

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same. being named kevin is a hard life in germany, but sometimes i can't help but wonder if it actually benefited me in some way. it tought me a great lesson about people being spiteful without realising it, just because it's been established by the social environment that you live in. while some people are just consciously being dickheads, others might have this negative stigma associated with the name Kevin without ever meeting a person named Kevin. to me this is fascinating and in my opionion extends in some ways to people being racist or homophobic without ever meeting people of the "other group".

> ... people being racist or homophobic without ever meeting people of the "other group".

In my limited experience, this is the norm, not an exception.

What is even more entertaining is that when they do know people from the other group, they have a habit of treating them as shining exceptions to the rule, not questioning whether or not the rule is even valid.

"no, that's different. [name] is my friend!"

> they have a habit of treating them as shining exceptions to the rule, not questioning whether or not the rule is even valid.

That doesn't stop with the -ism's, I routinely run into programmers learning about DRY and cargo-culting the hell out of it. People seize onto absolute rules and superficiality, failing to consider deeper conceptual dissimilarities that would negate the application of the rule.

"The Exception That Proves The Rule":

Yes, you can interpret it so it makes sense.

No, that sensible interpretation isn't the one that caught on.

It has a nasty symbiotic relationship with the "But you're one of the good ones" phenomenon, which is what you're more directly referring to.

Have you heard the Johnny Cash song "Boy named Sue"?

My name is Chad, similar deal.

Just play the part bro.

At least your name isn't Virgin

Edit: Might as well leave a link for regular people https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/virgin-vs-chad

From the article: "The word "Alpha-Kevin" (combination of Alpha male and the given name), as being representative of a particularly unintelligent young person, was, for a time, at the top of the list, which was the subject of a 2015 online poll for the Word of the year (Germany) and, particularly, the youth word of the year."

In your interactions with the other Kevins of Germany, have you encountered any of these Alpha-Kevins? Are they held in particularly high esteem in Kevinish circles?

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