Kevins got a bad rap in France
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
One example is spices in Europe. Used to be popular with the rich when it was expensive. When colonisation made spices cheap, everyone could afford it. That’s when the rich started a new trend of eschewing spices, which the masses copied. (NPR - How Snobbery Helped Take The Spice Out Of European Cooking https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/26/394339284/ho...).
The difficulties faced by Kevins and other names is precisely because they opted out of this process. By choosing an Anglophone name instead of copying a name popular with the upper classes, they’ve inadvertently created a marker for lower socioeconomic status. That wouldn’t be bad by itself, but lower socioeconomic status is correlated with lower test scores. That has clearly led to a cycle of (poor parents choose an anglophone name) -> (these kids struggle in school/drop out) -> (people associate these names with low intelligence) -> (these kids suffer discrimination) -> (low rates of achievement, perpetuating stereotypes).
We might feel an aversion to the first example. People copying their “social betters”, pretending to be higher on the socioeconomic scale might make us feel uncomfortable if we believe that all people are fundamentally equal. Why pretend to be someone else?
The second example with anglophone names in France points out why this behaviour is useful. That’s probably why we see the mimicking behaviour in all human societies. It’s to avoid this issue.
Since the French school system is very bad at correcting inequalities, a child born in an environment that does not favor school has very few chances of becoming a "bigwig" (deputy, doctor...). Where the TV is predominant, the chances are low that the parents read often or could help with homework. So these children have little chance of getting out of the working class.
As noted in the OP, in France having an "arab name" like Mohammed or Chérifa (nowadays these are called "muslim names") is much more painful. Some recruiters could frown upon a "Kevin" (even subconsciously), but many would simply reject any "Ahmed". According to a recurring poll, a majority of French people think that French muslims are not truly French citizens.
For example, you said "these names point to a working-class origin". I said "they’ve inadvertently created a marker for lower socioeconomic status."
You said "Where the TV is predominant, the chances are low that the parents read often or could help with homework." I said "but lower socioeconomic status is correlated with lower test scores." You gave a mechanism that explained how my claim comes true.
I then go on to say how this discrimination becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and leads to a cycle where people with these names are less likely to succeed.
You went a different way, pointing out that it's not only anglophone names in France that indicate a working class background, it's also Arab/Muslim names.
For those who understand Dutch, "De komomaan" [0][1], by De Neveneffecten is a wonderful BBC animal documentary parody on the life of the common man, with some strong references to these naming stereotypes.
[0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0771317/ [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuH1jlpOmtE
Sample: https://youtu.be/ha-iWCfMwY8
(Unlike the French or German versions, I don't believe this is about the importation of names from other places, though it could at least be partially rooted in anti-Irish prejudice)
Before the whole GDPR thing came into effect and results became anonymised I was working on doing a "distribution" of kids' first names based on their "Evaluare Nationala" results, to see if there was any correlation between "good" schools and some first names and "bad" schools and some other first names.
[1] https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mettigel_1.jpg
In fact, you’re correct to pick up on the fact that English often has ch where other Germanic languages have k (e.g. cheese = Dutch kaas, German Käse). This is because the original k changed to ch in English, in certain contexts.
Contrast place names with "Kirk" prefixes or suffixes, with place names like Gleneagles - it's not from eagles like caw caw flap flap but from the ancient church nearby. Eaglais, in Gaelic, cognate with église in French.
Yes it was a bias, but it’s also strange how this bias developed by itself too.
Of course, it's a generalisation but it really was flagrant.
Guess those experiences might have marked some kids that are now reproducing the same bullish behavior.
It's true there are stereotyped jokes about Kevins, especially in the IT word.
But it's nowhere near the the scale of what the article or the documentary suggests.
Kevin, working in IT, confirms that he hasn't heard the joke in years, and even in the 90, it was probably once a year. It never affected his life in any way. Honestly being a nerd in the 90' was the hard part.
It reminds me when we had a couple of cars burning in Paris and the US medias reported it as civil war. I had clients calling me, asking if I was OK.
At this stage, I'm assuming anything the medias are reporting is BS until proven otherwise. They destroyed the credibility of their own job.
Kevin carry that signal very strongly but it happens all the time, each time an "unusual" name gain popularity in a given period due to its appearance in popular culture.
For exemple, let's take the 2016 Disney movie "Moana" which was called Vaiana in France. In the years before the movie, there were about 4 or 5 Vaiana born per year. When the movie came out, it shot up to 60. On the scale of the country, it's not much but it's still an order of magnitude increase in a single year. You can bet that being called Vaiana and be born in 2017 will carry that same signal of having parents that name their children after the popular movie of the moment.
The only difference is that there were 14000 Kevins in 1991 and not 60, so it basically became a meme.
note the many ways to spell that wonderful name and how parents can get very creative.
also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhbrR4-Z5fw
Kevin is the guy at 3:26
In the spirit of “Kim Jong Il Looking At Things” and “Vin Diesel Loves Giving Thumbs Up” sites if I had the time I’d set up a meme site with Dwayne Johnson photos with a pencil moustache added on called “Scentez vous q’est que La Pierre cuisine?!” just because. He did play a wannabe Chef in The Rundown! I recommend it, quite fun. Christopher Walken as the bad guy…
Maybe "Est-ce que vous sentez ce que La Pierre cuisine ?" for a less formal language level.
I mean technically it’s “oui” but as soon as I make a connection it’s “ouai” from there on out.
As a child, I was also in class with a Kévin who was the worst schooler I've ever seen. He didn't understand anything in class, nor did he listen anyway, and was just always fidgeting with his pencils. Even our teacher kinda gave up on him. Coincidentally, his family was quite poor. I would have thought he was a complete moron if I hadn't become his friend. Out of school, it turned out he was kind, smart and pretty creative. Retroactively, I think he was just ADHD, but at the time this wasn't often diagnosed and those children were simply brushed off as being ill-mannered or outright stupid. If the condition had been known better at that time, and if teachers had been more aware of it, he would have fitted better. I think today he's a mechanic or something like that, and I'm sure he's happy with his life. That's all I wish for him anyway. I should try to get in touch.
Turned out in Croatian, a 'Peder' was someone with an unhealthy interest in kids.
Poor Peder immediately got ruled out as dating material - no way she'd be able to bring a guy back to her parents and introduce him as, well, a pederast.
(My name, too, is somewhat unfortunate in the anglo world - first name being 'Odd'. Oh well. There's a couple of Norwegians having it even worse. One of them is actually named just that. Even Worse. (Not to mention the brother of another former colleague, named Odd Male.)
So we have an old specific meaning that combines a 1) male 2) adult targeting a 3) male 4) child. This allows for a whole range of possibilities and thus possible disambiguties, if one or several of the four components were relaxed.
There are some parallels with the history of the word "homosexuality", because "homo" in Latin can mean both: "male human" or "human in general". The word often excluted female homosexuality, when it was limited to the performance of a particular sexual practice, namly anal penetration.
For example, Gay Byrne[1], who was sort of like the Irish Johnny Carson; a big cultural figure.
edit I say what fun is it, but that's basically the plot of a Seinfeld episode.
I never heard of the expression 'kevin' to talk about annoying or oblivious kids until I left Brittany (then internet arrived and everything changed).
It might be because of the invasion of us tv shows, but don't you think there was regionalism also in the area?
Yes, certainly. And Celtic culture was more mainstream in the 1990' thanks to events like the Interceltic festival of Lorient [0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_Interceltique_de_Lori...