But now – as many French Kevins reach their early 30s – there is a move to fight back against the national jokes associating the name with the stereotype of an airhead in a bad-taste shirt with a souped-up car or appearing on reality TV shows.
“There were always other Kevins at school and in my class, and it wasn’t a problem then,” he said. But by the time Fafournoux was a student, comedians were regularly making Kevin jokes, including Élie Semoun’s teenage girl character “Kevina”, and the name began being played for laughs and lampooned online.
“Some of the accounts are really hard,” he said. “A psychologist called Kevin hesitated about putting his first name on the professional sign outside his building, in case it put off clients from coming to see him. I heard from Kevins who had their first name raised in job interviews as if it was an issue. Professionals in senior positions – a neuroscience researcher, a doctor – said they had noticed it was harder to be taken seriously.
There were surprises too. When Fafournoux asked Kevins about their parents’ choice, “I learned that a number of French dads had chosen it because they admired the English footballer Kevin Keegan.”