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What’s fascinating about this is the process by which trends rise and fall in society. The article correctly points out that trends usually start in groups of higher socio-economic status, with other groups mimicking them. Eventually when it reaches all groups in society, the trend begins to fall in popularity.

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.

I think the process is a bit simpler: names like Kevin and Cindy were markers that the child was born in a family where TV was the predominant culture, by far. The "bad rap" described in the New Yorker is just "these names point to a working-class origin". For most people, it does not imply anything about their intelligence.

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.

I think we said pretty much the same thing. I'd be interested to understand how you think we disagree.

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.

Low class names are very recognisable in Belgium too. Names ending in "y" in particular. Kenny, Kelly, Lindsay, Jordy, ... I teach and try to go beyond the subconscious biases that come with those names. Not easy.

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

As a teacher, you may be interested in the stand up comedy of Noah Gardenschwarz. He is a large Jewish man with an affinity for Black Culture and was a teacher in urban Atlanta, Georgia for a while. Specifically he does material about what our names “mean” or say about our background.

Sample: https://youtu.be/ha-iWCfMwY8

Something similar happens in Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevinismus
...which is explicitly mentioned in the article, but I suppose not everyone actually reads it.
The UK too. When I was growing up Kevin or “Kev” was a (very classist) derogatory term, though it seems to have subsided. Roughly equivalent to “chav” I guess.

(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)

It’s not per say about the importation in France. It’s just than Kevin, Dylan and Steven were made popular by foreign TV shows and pop stars and were thus mostly given by parents coming from the lower class. It is purely classist in France too.
Same phenomenon in Spain, where there are jokes about meme-ish concoctions (which probably never existed) such as “Kevin Costner de Jesús”.
Kev / Chav makes me think about the difference betweeen the Scots word "kirk" versus English "church". Utterly unrelated, but one of those funny parallels.
On the contrary, kirk and church are very closely related. Both descend from Germanic kirikā, which was borrowed from the Greek κυριακόν (δῶμα) = the Lord’s (house).

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.

My wife (french) said it starts because Home Alone (1990) was very popular in France. Macaulay Culkin character is named Kevin.
Same thing here in Austria/Germany, the movies were even called "Kevin allein zu Haus" and "Kevin – Allein in New York" in german with the name right in the title. It was the most popular first name in germany in 1991:

https://www.beliebte-vornamen.de/4981-kevin.htm

...which is explicitly alluded to in the article, but I suppose not everyone reads it.
Keep fighting the good fight
Much like Karen in the US. Though the reasons behind Karen are not anti-intellectual but more anti-self entitlement. Names are weird when you really think about it.
I feel like a closer comparison would be Kyle, as in those "Kyle drinks monster and punch dry walls meme".
What's funny is that Karen is a very common masculine name in Armenia.
I have a very young neighbor named "Kieran", which I mis-herd as Karen when he was very small; but I have never known a male Karen.
My father was a headmaster of schools (6 to 20 years olds). Not that he wouldn’t take Gregorys and Kevins, but he’d always open their file and find behavioral issues noted by previous teachers, confirmed through a discussion with the parents on what educative principle they used, ending up in justifying not taking the kid.

Yes it was a bias, but it’s also strange how this bias developed by itself too.

My mother was a headmistress in France, there were certain name that heavily correlated with behavioural problems: Dylan, Kevin, Ryan, Johnny (from the French singer Johnny Hallyday). It's classist because those names tended to be from the lower classes but in general, it was also specifically the least intelligent parents from the lower classes that often chose those names.

Of course, it's a generalisation but it really was flagrant.

Come to think of it, I remember clearly french school teachers (male and female, but mostly female) being so condescending with kids being named Kevin, Dylan, Jennifer, etc. in the 90´s, like their names implied they were born stupid and they would stay that way for the rest of their lives.

Guess those experiences might have marked some kids that are now reproducing the same bullish behavior.

That's called a "self-fulfilling prophecy." You can always find what you're looking for. That's the essence of the unfairness of bias, so it's not a surprise that minorities and poor people are in US prisons in large numbers or receive harsher school-to-prison pipeline treatment in education.
“You’re what the French call les incompetents.”
Frenchman here, and have a very close Kevin.

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.

I'm disappointed that no Francophone has ever informed me of this.
There is no stigma for anglophones to be called Kevin. Only french "Kevins" carry the stigma mostly because, as stated in the article, it carries a strong signal of having a lower social-economic background.

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.

As someone with dual citizenship through marriage, and having lived 15 years in France (and speaking French at home despite English being my mother tongue), I'm amused and dismayed to discover than I'm the proverbial Karen of my adopted country ... and never had a clue before this article.
it only works if you're a french person named kevin.
In Canada, we have a documentary about Kevins https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premiere/emissions/penelop...

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

As a long-time student of French and its numerous cultural outposts worldwide, it never fails to amuse me that Pierre means “rock” in French yet in the US it’s used as an emasculating pejorative type name.

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…

"Sentez-vous ce que La Pierre cuisine ?". Qu'est-ce que juste sounds weird here (and is grammatically incorrect too).

Maybe "Est-ce que vous sentez ce que La Pierre cuisine ?" for a less formal language level.

Pierre is an emasculating pejorative name in the US?
It wasn't a chavvy name in the UK, but back in the 70s an 80's it was part of a collection of names that became associated with a certain working class archetype. It was Gary, Wayne and Kevin for men and Sharon and Tracy for girls. It was considered the height of "naffness" to give your children those names.
It might have been true 20/30 years ago, as working class people used to give their kids anglo-saxon names because TV shows and movies, it's just not true now. Let's be honest, in some places, it's more damaging for kids in poor areas to be called "Pierre", "Jacques" or "Henry" or anything that sounds too french because of the deep hatred some people have toward anything french, in France itself.
In Spain too, and since school times. Ask a teacher.
Every “Kevin” I’ve known has been an idiot.
I've known a Kévin who was a bully and a complete moron. As far as I know, today he's into drugs.

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.

I only met one and he was absolutely normal
The only Kevin I know is a jerk but pretty smart. Let’s start a new meme: Kevin permutations.
It seems to me that among the US boomers, Kevin was often a marker of Irish descent. Pretty obviously that has long since ceased to be true.
And, completely irrelevant but still - a Croatian former colleague blushed like hell when being introduced to another colleague of ours, named Peder.

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.)

Peder means "gay", not pedophile in croatian (or serbian). A bit less problematic, but still not that acceptable in the balkans.
Also irrelevant, I have next of kin named ‘Cock’. Always good for strange faces, especially when confirming the spelling: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_(surname)
Peter File from the IT Crowd.
For information, Kevin is also a Breton/Celtic name, and was quite popular in Brittany.
I was born in 1956 in Brittany and never heard about "Kevin" as a first name before the 1980'. My opinion is this is just because of the explosions of medias that occurred at that time (end of ORTF, massive invasion of US TV shows and series)