Friday 20 October 2017

onomastique

With the name Kevin too having been an explosively popular choice for a generation of newly reunified Germans as well, we appreciated this examination by French edition of The Local about how expectant parents were infatuated with the Hollywood-propelled but accented version of the name.
Although Kévin appears in the official rolls of recognised prénoms—which dictated, coincidentally, what parents were allowed to name their children up until 1993, two years after the phenomena that so captured the attention of mothers and fathers swept the continent—as the namesake of an Irish saint that was not uncommon in Brittany, the popularity soon faded and this class of like-named boys and their parents became (like in Germany) targets of mild ridicule and derision. The French government, like that of Germany, still retains discretion on what names might be inappropriate and therefore not allowed—which I believe is a sound and appropriate policy and does strike me as an expatriate associated with an American community with babies and young people named Maverick, Voilà, etc. as something highly advisable.