In German, Kevinismus ("Kevinism") is the negative preconception German people have of Germans with trendy, exotic-sounding first names considered to be an indicator of a low social class.[1] The prototypical example is Kevin, which like most such names came to Germany from Anglo-American culture. Specifically, the 1990 comedy Home Alone, the German title of which Kevin – Allein zu Haus includes the hero's name, is credited with making Kevin to be the most popular boys' name chosen in Germany in 1991.[2] Kevin Costner's 1990 film Dances with Wolves is often cited as an additional factor.[3] Both films were released in Germany in 1991 and were the two most successful films there in that year.[4]
Sometimes Chantalismus ("Chantalism") is used as a female equivalent, from the French name Chantal.[5]
Overview
editThe issue of whether parents of lower socioeconomic status tend more to give their children exotic or Anglo-American names has been discussed among German sociologists from completely opposite points of view. However, there is no definitive view.[6] Because of the unusual and sudden popularity of the name, the term Kevinism (or Chantalism after the female given name Chantal) for this cliché was first created by the satirical website Uncyclopedia, and was subsequently picked up by journalists.[5]
According to a master's thesis authored at the University of Oldenburg in 2009, certain given names of students can indeed lead to prejudices on the part of teachers.[7] For example, the name "Kevin" (an anglicised name of Irish origin), given to a German child, indicates to German teachers that such a student is prone to attention-seeking behaviour, as well as lower scholastic performance, and is also indicative of a lower socioeconomic status. It was not possible to determine whether this also causes a student to be treated less well.[8] Prejudice of this type is understood to be more prevalent amongst teachers in Western Germany. English or otherwise exotic given names are often understood/stigmatised in the old states of Germany to be typical "Ossi".[9] English given names in East Germany were particularly popular in the two decades preceding German reunification. There, this trend was also popular amongst the middle class, while the preference for such given names today, particularly in Western Germany, is perceived as a lower class phenomenon.[10]
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 German Word of the Year and, particularly, the youth word of the year. However, it was struck from the list of suggestions on account of being discriminatory to people bearing the name Kevin.[11] The phenomenon in Germany, especially during limited periods of time, that particularly popular given names are associated with negative prejudices to the point of being used as swear words, is not new from a linguistic perspective. In the past, this was the case, as an example, for given names including Horst, Detlef, Uschi (German short form of Ursula) and Heini (German short form of Heinrich).[12]
The onomatologist and linguist Damaris Nübling spoke at a September 2015 convention on the topic of "given names as social markers" about a "smear campaign" having been waged against given names (in Germany) such as Kevin and Chantal and criticised the rhetoric concerning such given names as being "very cheap polemic".[13]
References
edit- ^ Pribyl, Katrin (26 February 2008). ""Kevinismus": Wie Namen die Zukunft von Kindern beeinflussen". DIE WELT. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
- ^ Ein Fall von Kevinismus (in German)
- ^ Kevinismus und Chantalismus: Wenn der Vorname zur Hypothek wird (in German)
- ^ Top 100 Deutschland 1991
- ^ a b Kevinismus, vermeidbare Kinderkrankheit ["Kevinism, an avoidable childhood illness"] Archived 25 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine in Welt-Online dated 23 December 2007, viewed on 9 June 2013
- ^ Is there such a thing as a classic lower-class name? Archived 30 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Die Welt, 27 February 2008, last viewed on 24 December 2015
- ^ Julia Isabell Kube, "Given name research, Questionnaire study of teachers, whether prejudices concerning specific given names of grade school students are associated with specific personality markers", University of Oldenburg, Masters thesis, 2009
- ^ Oliver Trenkamp: "Kevin is not a Name, but, instead, a diagnosis" Archived 23 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Der Spiegel, 16 September 2009, last viewed on 17 September 2009.
- ^ "Discrimination based on names – Mandys Suffering" Archived 12 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Migazin, 27 February 2012, last viewed on 25 October 2015.
- ^ "What is supposed to be the meaning of this?" Archived 4 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine Die Zeit, 31 October 2012, last viewed on 25 October 2015
- ^ "Youth word of the year 'Alpha-Kevin' is a non-starter" Archived 16 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26 July 2015
- ^ How names can become swear words, jetzt.de Archived 26 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 7 September 2015, last viewed on 19 September 2015
- ^ Difficult given names "Nobody takes a Lilly seriously" Archived 20 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 September 2015, last viewed on 19 September 2015.