Zofia K. Stanley, The Local (Sweden), Sept. 18, 2009
Charlotte or Chantal? From the moment they first read the school register, teachers could already be unfairly prejudiced against certain children, a new study from the University of Oldenberg revealed this week.
According to the study released this week, which is based on an extensive online questionnaire, the great majority of teachers make assumptions about the academic performance and behaviour of children based merely on their first names.
Around 2,000 elementary school (Grundschule) teachers throughout Germany were anonymously questioned—with disheartening results.
The study reveals that the names traditional names such as Charlotte, Sophie, Marie, Hannah, Alexander, Maximilian, Simon, Lukas and Jakob are consistently linked to strong performance and good behaviour. Non-traditional names such as Chantal, Mandy, Angelina, Kevin, Justin and Maurice, on the other hand, are associated with weak performance and bad behaviour.
“These prejudices undoubtedly widen a pre-existing class divide,” pedagogical expert Professor Astrid Kaiser, who led the research project, told The Local.
According to Kaiser, it is no coincidence that almost all of the ‘positive’ names mentioned above are also in the ‘top ten’ list of names given to newborn boys and girls in Germany, as published in The Statistical Yearbook 2008 for the Federal Republic of Germany.
“The names with positive connotations are all traditional German ones,” she said. “What this shows is that children from a working class or immigrant background are clearly being discriminated against.”
In some cases, the strength of the prejudices connected with names was surprising.
The name Kevin was perceived as being linked to especially poor behaviour and performance, with one study participant even writing that, “Kevin is not a name—it’s a diagnosis!”
Kaiser told The Local that the inspiration behind her study came in part from similar research carried out in the United States.
One study in particular showed that in a group of children deemed to be equal intelligence level taught by the same teachers for two years, the performance of children with African-American names worsened considerably.
“I truly believe that expectation is the mother of all achievement,” Kaiser said. “Just as it has been shown that if a coach does not believe in the potential of an athlete, that athlete’s performance will drop, I believe that if teachers do not believe in the potential of their pupils then the pupils’ performances will plummet.”
The effect of such prejudices is particularly significant coming from elementary school teachers because it is widely acknowledged that younger children are more responsive to encouragement.
Such prejudices could have a drastic impact upon children’s future success, particularly in a school system where children are separated into different schools according to intellectual potential at the age of just 10.
Statistics show that once a child has been placed in the less academic Realschule or Hauptschule, it is very rare for them to transfer to the university preparatory Gymnasium.
Professor Kaiser called for the necessity to “educate teachers in the dangers of such prejudices.”
Of the teachers questioned, the overwhelming majority associated personal traits with first names without a second thought. Only a very small percentage of those who answered the survey said that they tried to maintain a critical distance between such prejudices and their pupils’ names.
Original article
(Posted on September 22, 2009)
Comments
My German boss here in Frankfurt named his son Jason, a name which seems to be fairly popular among some younger German parents. Hope he does well in school, but oddly enough, there does seem to be an issue with his current school, and his folks are thinking of putting him in a private one. Guess my boy is toast. I named him Vladimir.
There are many theories, but mine is that children named Shaniqua and N’Deshawntavious are less intelligent to begin with, and therefore won’t do as well in school.
If white teachers are so prejudiced around students with “non-traditional” names, then “non-traditional” students shouldn’t be in classrooms with white teachers.
Quantavious, Quanderella, Fosho, Shamika, Shauntavia, Shaundrina….etc etc……
Parents in the black comunity seem to hurt thier childs future from day 1. But like all of the parody movies, childen in black communities are more accesories than blessings. So they want to most stylish accessory possible. That is why all of the above names are people I know who all are felons and who all are unemployed.
Think about it. If I named my child Theif, what bank would hire them. If I named my child Murder, even if he were top of the class, who would hire them? We associate (and rightfully so) the above names to crimes. Therefore we have another exaple of the black community shooting their self in the foot yet again
Is this a joke?? “Kevin” is a bad name? Are there a lot of Kevins in Germany? I dont get it!
Please, whatever the you do.. name your children something I can pronounce.
Just wait until they get a De’shanque or a Kwalabia.
But “Kevin” and “Maurice”? Really!
I happen to know a Kevin, who is a White Nationalist, who scored perfect scores on his SAT.
The prejudices of these German Nordic-types AGAINST THEIR OWN WHITE BRETHREN are disheartening and ignorant.
Loosen up, guys, and listen to the music of the late Maurice Gibb and the Bee Gees (pre- or post-disco, of course!).
The name Kevin was perceived as being linked to especially poor behaviour and performance, with one study participant even writing that, “Kevin is not a name—it’s a diagnosis!”
Oh dear… Our Australian PM is a Kevin & yes he does behave badly…he has a penchant for temper tantrums & the use of 4 letter words directing them at his staff regularly……
Those Germans are pretty sharp eh!!
I’m confused; what is wrong with the name “Kevin?” I guess it must be cultural differences. Regardless, as other posters have said, it is fairly obvious when you see a kid named “O’baqmuixious” or whatever other bizarre names black mothers think up these days, that you are going to have probems with that kid.
You can tell a lot about a persons background just from looking at their name. If a white person has a traditional-sounding name, they are likely from a traditional family. If a white person has a nickname for an official name or some trendy name like “Dakota” or “Neveah”, they are likely from a lower-class home (no offense to anyone with such a name). There is an interesting chapter on this subject in the book “Freakonomics.”
Oddly, despite the fact that America is a “melting pot”, I found in college that I could often accurately predict a professor’s political ideology by their last name. Professors with Jewish and Irish last names were almost always liberals; professors with Italian and German last names were more likely to be conservative.
If those teachers have low expectations for a boy named “Kevin” I can only imagine what they’d think of a girl named “Latrine”.
If they think us Kevins are misbehavin’ just wait till they get a classroom full of Mohammeds!
I happen to know a Kevin, who is a White Nationalist, who scored perfect scores on his SAT.
The prejudices of these German Nordic-types AGAINST THEIR OWN WHITE BRETHREN are disheartening and ignorant.
Why would you think, based upon European history, that Europeans are as united in Whiteness as White Americans? There are plenty of ethnic divides within Europe that have been well entrenched for centuries. In fact, White Nationalism doesn’t make sense in Germany…the analogue there would be German Nationalism.
How odd. Are there many Kevins in Germany? Australia’s Prime Minister is KEVIN Rudd (or Kevin %$#& Rudd, as he is known to some). There are many successful Kevins, maybe the Germans need to rethink this prejudice. ‘Kevin’ is an Irish name meaning ‘kind, gentle and handsome’.
KEVIN PIETERSEN, cricketer, England captain
Self-named black artists like ‘Duke’ Ellington and ‘Count’ Basie were just engaging in the African trait of creating mystique around themselves. Unusual African children’s names lean towards the fanciful. A fancy name serves the same purpose as bling.
Most Chinese living in the West adopt a common Western name because they know how to play this game.
They want to be thought of positively so they can get ahead, suggesting to anyone they meet that they have our values. A simple yet effective trick.
I doubt the accuracy of this story. Germany and much of Western Europe, is plauged, oh so plauged by the same type of kooky liberals that plauge the U.S. Who do you think did these “studies”? Furthermore, studies or research of this type,(social, psychological) cannot be done as objectively as research in the physical sciences. Just think of all the concepts liberals work with and try to push, that are on the face of it, absurd and obviously false. A common name that Germans have given kids is Oliver. My cousin is a soccer fanatic, and I noticed quite a few Germans named Oliver on the German teams. Is that any more strange than Kevin?
What’s so non-traditional about names like Kevin? Granted I am American, but I am well into my 40’s and went to school with countless guys named Kevin, however knew very few Maurice’s, and the few I did meet later with that name were usually black, not French. The same would be true of names like Chantal
I guess the commentators here don’t understand what this article is talking about. It is about the tendency of lower class Germans to give their children trendy names influenced by the English language popular culture media. You better believe that children from these kind of households do worse in school and misbehave more than children from households with more traditional values who watch less TV.
Discrimination? In Germany? No, that can’t be… who would have ever thought that such a thing could happen there?
By the way, how do the Johanns and Wolfgangs do in working-class American schools?
My sister and her husband have lived in Germany for many years. I have gathered that admission to the 3 different kind of high schools is based on standardized tests given to all students, not just teachers reccomendations.
So if the teachers don’t like the names, what difference does it make?
I guess the commentators here don’t understand what this article is talking about. It is about the tendency of lower class Germans to give their children trendy names influenced by the English language popular culture media. You better believe that children from these kind of households do worse in school and misbehave more than children from households with more traditional values who watch less TV.
On the flip side in the US certain minorities, (namely blacks) are more inclined to not choose “trendy” western names for their kid’s, or even traditional African ones, but instead choose names like LaShaquita, and the like. Names like these can also present problems, especially with potential employers.
“I guess the commentators here don’t understand what this article is talking about. It is about the tendency of lower class Germans to give their children trendy names influenced by the English language popular culture media. You better believe that children from these kind of households do worse in school and misbehave more than children from households with more traditional values who watch less TV.”
This is true - in Sweden kids with these names used to be called y-kids because so many names had y in them (Jonny, Tony, Jenny, Ronny etc). Todays dysfunctional white names are derived from American pop culture - Kevin, Dexter, Liam etc.
“It is about the tendency of lower class Germans to give their children trendy names influenced by the English language popular culture media.”
I think that hits the nail on the head. Of course, Kevin is an Irish name (originally), but it has become widely popular in America (and other English-sleaking countries). It doesn’t exist in German. So Germans would see it as a flashy American name of the sort that one sees in the American celebrity media, not Irish at all. Different countries think of names differently. James is an extremely typical name in Scotland and Ireland, but in Berlin it is assumed to be Jewish because only Jews use it. In America, Norman and Seymour tend to be Jewish, although they are not. Maurice puzzles me; in Germany it would Moritz. Otherwise, it would seem more French, or else used (very commonly) by American blacks. Kevin is probably unknown in German, except when attached to sports stars and movie personalities —the sorts the celeb/gossip magazines gush over. So who would name their children out of celebrity magazines? Brainless, low-class people who are influenced by trash culture.
The popularity of the name “Kevin” in Germany is directly attributable to the former Hamburg footballer(Soccer player to Americans)Kevin Keegan,who in spite of his Irish sounding name was a Yorkshireman.His period as a player in Germany was very successful and he further won over the locals by mastering the German language,no mean feat as most English footballers can’t even speak English.
