Kevinism
en.wikipedia.org
Kevinism
1–10 of 84 posts
Re: Kevinism
#2Freakonomics 2010 discusses this.
Yes you can tell about from the child from their name.
They further that and talk how more educated parents chose names that aren't broken, then the poorer parents eventually see that as a status symbol so follow along and break that name, so the cycle continues.
I believe this is just the next step of lower social economic parents cargo culting originality and misspeling names or picking names from overseas.
Re: Kevinism
#3> The word "Alpha-Kevin" (combination of Alpha male and the given name), as being representative of a particularly unintelligent young person
Alpha-Kevin is a term I'll have to use more often
Re: Kevinism
#4The funny thing is that Kevin is not a very praised name in general either:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StoriesAboutKevin/
“What is a Kevin?
A Kevin is someone who consistently or greatly shows a complete lack of intelligence through incompetence of social and societal norms, or is purposefully antagonistic in their poor decision making. Remember the kid in your class who would constantly get in trouble for really dumb things? He was probably a Kevin. Family members, friends, coworkers, and classmates can all become Kevins.”
Re: Kevinism
#5What's missing in this article is the aspect of escapism. The mentioned names Ronny and Mandy were especially popular in East Germany for kids born in the late 70ies, early 80ies. I think many parents picked "exotic" names for their kids in some sense of longing for the places they could never hope to see. Maybe some simple way to be part of a larger world?
I could see the same mechanism in socio-economic disadvantaged parents. Their world is limited by money, not borders, but they still want to be part of the larger world.
Re: Kevinism
#6It also applies here in France, especially northern/eastern parts close to Germany.
Well, not for Chantal, which is not a very exotic name here.
Re: Kevinism
#7My 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.
Re: Kevinism
#8The article also mentioned Horst as having a particular association - what was the association?
Re: Kevinism
#9The article also mentioned Horst as having a particular association - what was the association?
Basically the same as the other mentioned: Moron, idiot or dimwit. But the actual names used vary from generations and regions.
Also I would say these name insults are mostly used by children and teenagers. As a somewhat effective workaround to avoid getting punished for using the actual swearwords.
Re: Kevinism
#10It also applies here in France, especially northern/eastern parts close to Germany. Well, not for Chantal, which is not a very exotic name here.
Also in Spain. Kevin, Joshua, etc automatically mark you as being a gypsy. No Chantal here though, but names like Jennifer or Yolanda are arguably used to that effect too. Very, very surprised though to see this as an international phenomenon.