France and Austria (more)
in reply to a message by Perrine
First of all let me say that I really don't like judging people by their names. I know nice people with most of these names. But they do have a certain image, due to associations.
I will start with Austria:
Kevin - this is an Irish classic but here it is probably the tackiest name there is. Articles have been written about what a burden it is to bear this name. I actually think this is exaggerated and always thought of Kevin as a nice Irish classic. But it is definitely a difficult name to have here.
Jacqueline - I think this has something to do with people mispronouncing it and misspelling it as Jaqueline.
Mandy, Sandy, Cindy, Peggy - probably because they are nicknames used as full names.
Chantal - because of mispronunciations, I guess. In German it often become SHAHNN-tall or shahnn-TALL which don't sound very elegant.
Cheyenne - I guess because of a German celeb couple who gave this to their daughter and don't have the best image.
Shakira - I guess because it just doesn't really go well with German surnames and people assume you were a gigantic fan of the singer.
Chiara, Kiara - can get mispronounced a lot and is the name of a German high society daughter who had lots of plastic surgery.
Hmmm kind of sad, I always had a bit of a soft spot for Cheyenne. I guess in general you could say they are names with a short history of usage in Austria that mainly became common due to modern media (TV etc., not books) and are therefore associated with people who have time to watch TV a lot? No idea, but I find it interesting how bad the images of these names are now, and kind of sad that they are in such a sad category they might never be able to get out of.
In France:
I guess it is mainly English names that were brought by modern media such as:
Tiffany
Kelly
Brendan
This whole subject is really interesting to me. Chantal and Jacqueline which are tacky in Austria are boring but classic old lady names in France :P And Tiffany and Kelly which are tacky in France are normal names in the US, even though they might have a bit of a cheerleader image to some.
I will start with Austria:
Kevin - this is an Irish classic but here it is probably the tackiest name there is. Articles have been written about what a burden it is to bear this name. I actually think this is exaggerated and always thought of Kevin as a nice Irish classic. But it is definitely a difficult name to have here.
Jacqueline - I think this has something to do with people mispronouncing it and misspelling it as Jaqueline.
Mandy, Sandy, Cindy, Peggy - probably because they are nicknames used as full names.
Chantal - because of mispronunciations, I guess. In German it often become SHAHNN-tall or shahnn-TALL which don't sound very elegant.
Cheyenne - I guess because of a German celeb couple who gave this to their daughter and don't have the best image.
Shakira - I guess because it just doesn't really go well with German surnames and people assume you were a gigantic fan of the singer.
Chiara, Kiara - can get mispronounced a lot and is the name of a German high society daughter who had lots of plastic surgery.
Hmmm kind of sad, I always had a bit of a soft spot for Cheyenne. I guess in general you could say they are names with a short history of usage in Austria that mainly became common due to modern media (TV etc., not books) and are therefore associated with people who have time to watch TV a lot? No idea, but I find it interesting how bad the images of these names are now, and kind of sad that they are in such a sad category they might never be able to get out of.
In France:
I guess it is mainly English names that were brought by modern media such as:
Tiffany
Kelly
Brendan
This whole subject is really interesting to me. Chantal and Jacqueline which are tacky in Austria are boring but classic old lady names in France :P And Tiffany and Kelly which are tacky in France are normal names in the US, even though they might have a bit of a cheerleader image to some.