Is Kevin such a bad name?...

[MammieBear]

Hi, it seems to get bad press when you look it up the male form of Sharron (that's another thread entirely) for me it reminds me of Home Alone that's not a bad childhood memory. Your thoughts 💭...

It's a lovely name. It doesn't get the bad rep here in Ireland that it seems to get in England.

Indeed. When I hear snobbishness over Kevin, I can't help wondering whether it's anti-Irish prejudice. Just like Liam and Conor are often cited as 'naughty' names...

Kevin has a lovely sound. But then I also love Sharon as a sound and love the Joni Mitchell song. More interesting and substantial than Ella/Bella/Mia/Maya etc

Kevin's horrible.

Reminds me of Kevin Rudd and We Need to Talk About Kevin, neither of which are remotely positive associations.

My husband is Kevin. He is a fabulous man. But is an awful name.

One xmas he bought me the dvd of we need to talk about Kevin ‘from the kids’, but crossed out Kevin and wrote ‘daddy’.

He had no idea what the film was about.

Americans say it better, sounds so much nicer. Ditto Colin. UK pronunciation is blunt and hard.

🤢

I’m married to a very lovely Kevin but we both agree it’s a pretty naff name. He’s mid 30s so it seems slightly not of the time.

Also annoying characters are often called Kevin, it’s like shorthand for anoraky, nerdish weirdo.

Agree that American Kevins are cool.
Brit Kevins are uncool.

But any name can be cool on the right person eg Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth, Kevin Costner.

Prefer Kelvin or Calvin.

It's probably 30 or 40 years before its revival time if the 100-year rule for names applies. Nothing objectively wrong with it, it just sounds dated to us, and has a few negative stereotypes attached. But 30 years ago people would have said that about Stanley, Albert, Arthur et al.

It's awful.

It's a terrible name.

I love it!

It's my husband's name, dad's name and my son's middle name.

It's bloody hilarious that it's almost always used to portray odd characters on tv and in films.
Kevin the gerbil, Kevin the Rowntrees fruit bat, Kevin the stroppy teenager, Kevin the UP bird, Kevin the purple minion...
Every time it comes up on tv there's a laugh in our house. We like the name.

The sheer awesomeness that is Mr Kevin Bridges makes it pretty good too. Best comedian out there.

Spring I don't think many English people even know that Kevin is an Irish name. The bias against the name is partly because its one of the names that had a big popularity surge for a very short time, meaning it dates more than classic names or names not commonly used in the last 80-100 years, and because it has been associated with a string of unfortunate fictional characters.

The naming of fictional characters could possibly be traced back through multiple links to anti Irish bias, theoretically, although it's likely that people didn't know that's where the bias originated - is that what you suspect?

I don't actually dislike it as a collection of sounds, but when I was a little girl (very much of the Kevin generation), I somehow got the idea that Kevins were always a bit weedy and whiny. I've known a few nicer ones as I've got older, and now I feel more or less neutral about the name. I know someone who gave it to her son as a middle name quite recently, but it was after her dad - I haven't seen much sign of it becoming generally popular again.

I think it's a lovely name, and St Kevin is a nice namesake.

I agree it's anti-Irish prejudice partly. And it now sounds like a very dated name as it was over-popular in the 70s and 80s - like a lot of other nice names. Due a revival.

It's inoffensive and dull. Like Colin or Kenneth.

I genuinely don't think it has anything to do with anti irish sentiments as I reckon most people think it is an English name. Its very very common in 40- 50 year olds. I think it fits it with names like colin and gary as a bit boring.

I don't agree that it's anti-Irish. There are loads of Irish names used in the UK, like Liam, Niall, etc. It just suffered from being too popular like the name Sharon did for girls. Which I also think is a nice name.

Not really. I have a good friend named Kevin and He's really a great guy. I don't really believe names carry personality instead, I do believe otherwise.

Kevins abound in Ireland the way Jonathans do in the UK. A kind of Everyman name. I doubt most British people even know it's an Irish name, they just know it as a name that was massively popular at one point and now seems really dull and dated. And it is a name associated with unappealing fictional characters.

I see it as a classic Irish name, albeit a deadly dull one and one I would never choose in a million years.

I don’t like it, but the younger generations may see it without its connotations from a few decades ago.

I don't dislike it but I know it's hated on mumsnet.