let me tell you about the name Kevin in
Germany hey guys what's up it's Kelly
again and welcome back to my channel! I
just did a video for you guys talking
about surnames in Germany and now I'm
going to do a video to talk to you guys
about first name differences between
Germany and the US. now if you had told
me a few years ago that there are a lot
of differences between first names in
Germany and the US I probably would have
looked at you and been like yeah they're
different countries they have different
names, obviously. but that's really not
all there is to it. first, I want to
clarify something that I've heard some
grumblings about among my German friends and acquaintances. I guess there have
been some instances where Americans have expressed the expectation that their
US. American name can be translated
into German and then conversely that a
German name can be translated into a
US. American name. and yeah, as I'm
saying this especially, it sounds really
pretty stupid. but I think that I can
shed some light onto why that sort of
idea would exist. so when Americans go to
high school they will most likely learn
a language. they will learn either
Spanish French or German... maybe there
will only be Spanish depending on the
school district, maybe they'll have some
other languages like Italian or Russian...
it all depends on the school, and the
funding, and the availability of teachers
in that area. but these language teachers
will oftentimes assign their students
with a new name that correlates with
whatever language they're learning as
sort of an idea to get them into the
mindset of being ready to speak in that
language. so for example I learned
Spanish in high school,
regrettably I did not learn German, I
learned Spanish, and students in my class
with me with names like Mark and
Matt and Emily became Mateo and Marco
and Emilia. that was their Spanish
assigned name so it sort of seemed like
their name was translated into Spanish
but really it was just the Spanish
version of their name.
now of course names like mine, Kelly, does
not have a translation into Spanish. it
doesn't have a Spanish version and
similarly it doesn't have a German
version so I kind of always understood
that my name didn't translate into
another language but you can see why
someone might think that this is the
case that there is you know a version of
their name in every single language.
right, so moving on. in the US a lot of
times longer names will be shortened.
so someone named Stephanie might go by
Steph, Stephen might become Steve Matthew might become Matt, Benjamin will become
Ben. I don't think that this is any
different from what you would see in
Germany - they shorten names there too.
but I think what is really
surprising for a lot of Germans is to
hear that sometimes the shortened
version of an original name looks
nothing like the original name and
sometimes it actually isn't even any
shorter. so let me give you an example -
our 42nd President Bill Clinton's real
name is William, not Bill. He goes by Bill
which is a diminutive form of William so
if you meet an American with the name
William, they might go by William, they
might go by Will like Will Ferrell or
they might go by Bill  - for example Bill
Gates. His real name is William, but he
goes by Bill. so for another example, our
vice president for George Bush is Dick
Cheney but his real name isn't Dick, his
real name is Richard. Dick is just the
diminutive form of Richard. so if you
meet an American with
Richard they might go by Richard, they
might go by Rich, which of course makes
sense it's just a shortened version, they
might go by Rick, which yeah you can see
that, or they might go by Dick which
looks really nothing like Richard.
Another example, we'll just stick with
politics, Senator Chuck Schumer is the
Minority Leader for the Senate in
the US, and his real name is Charles.
Chuck is the nickname for Charles. and on
the Senate Majority is Senator Ted Cruz
whose real name is Rafael Edward Cruz
but Ted is the diminutive form of the
name Edward. so if you meet someone named Edward they might go by Edward or they
might go by Ed, they might go by Eddie,
or they could go by Ted. Ted is the one
that doesn't really fit with Edward.
where does that T come from? nobody knows
where the T comes from. moving on to some Hollywood examples - Jim Carrey is a
famous actor in his real name is James
because Jim is the diminutive form of
James. and finally, Jack Nicholson who is
a very famous actor and screenwriter, his
real name is actually John. and this is
one that I find to be the most confusing
of all of the examples that I've already
given you because John is no shorter
than Jack. it's already a very, very short
one syllable name and it looks nothing
like Jack but yet John will become Jack.
so it's not actually Jack Nicholson his
name is John Nicholson. I didn't really
see this as a thing in Germany. what I
did see was shortened versions that I
mentioned earlier. things that make sense.
they correlate very strongly with each
other. so Benjamin would become Bennie or
Ben. Christoph would become Chris. Michail will become Micha. but these are also
used in very casual settings among
friends and my friend Bennie would never
sign a document as Bennie it would always
be Benjamin. but in the US, people
like Dick Cheney will sign documents as
Dick Cheney
even though his real name is Richard.
Another big difference that I noticed
between Germany and the US are middle
names in that a lot of Americans will
have middle names and middle names in
Germany just aren't common at all and
even stranger perhaps is the fact that a
lot of Americans will use their middle
name as their first name. so going back
to my example of Senator Cruz, you
probably heard me and picked up on the
fact that I said his full name is Rafael
Edward Cruz but that he goes by Ted
Cruz. Ted being the diminutive form of
the name Edward which is his middle name, not even his first name. I know a lot of
people in my life that used their middle
name as their first name but of course
you don't know those people, so I'll
stick with some celebrity examples here.
Bradley Pitt his first name is actually
William but he goes by his middle name
Bradley or the shortened version of it
Brad. Dakota Fanning is a big actress
here and her real first name is actually
Hannah she goes by Dakota which is her
middle name and Meghan Markel is the
princess that married one of the people
I don't really remember one of the royal
people and her middle name is Meghan
while her first name is actually Rachel.
I think I most often see people in the
US taking their middle name on as
their first name if they share the same
first name as their father and I say
father because usually this is with men.
so for example, I have a friend whose
first name is Frederick. it's the same
first name his father has and so my
friend goes by Benjamin which is his
middle name and so that way if the
family's ever together it's not
confusing if someone just yells
Frederick, both people turn around to
look and see which one is needed, they're
able to say Frederick or Benjamin. in
fact I see a lot of people in the US
using the same name
generation after generation and they
start to add suffixes at the end of the
name, so for example junior or the third
or the fourth in order to differentiate
between the people and denote some sort
of distinction. so Bill Gates who I
mentioned earlier is named William Henry
Gates which is the same exact name of
both his father and his grandfather and
so Bill Gates is actually William Henry
Gates the Third. but I don't think this
is happening in Germany I can't think of
a single time I've met like a Martin
Hofman the Third or anything like this.
another thing I noticed in Germany is
that there seem to be really strong
associations with certain names. so I'll
use my name for example. I can't tell you
how many times I've had people tell me
when I introduced myself or even write
on my youtube-channel saying "oh my gosh
Kelly just like the character in married
with children" or "just like the character
in Beverly Hills 90210" and every time I
actually I have to laugh at this because
they will oftentimes be people that are
the same age as me and I never, guys, I
never saw an episode of married with
children because it ended in 1997. I was
10 years old at the time so I actually
don't know who this Kelly character is
that everybody thinks I'm related to or
named after and I barely remember seeing
Beverly Hills 90210 with my older sister
it was one of her favorite TV shows so
it just makes me laugh because I can't
even really relate to what their
references are but those references are
always brought up when I introduce
myself to a German it seems. now I can
understand why this association would
happen. I mean my name is foreign in Germany
so of course people will relate it to
the one or two other times that they've
ever heard the name Kelly before but it
goes even further than this. let me tell
you about the name Kevin in Germany.
according to Die Welt, the name Kevin was
the most popular name
in Germany in 1991 but despite its
former popularity there is quite a
negative stigma attached to this name
now generating terms like Kevinitis and
Kevinism. there was a study done by the
University of Oldenburg that found that
teachers associated the name Kevin with
poor behavior and that they actually
graded homework and papers written by
students named Kevin far more harshly
than students bearing other names
obviously this disadvantages a kid
solely for the fact that his name is
Kevin and it became a topic of
discussion in Germany where a lot of
sociologists weighed in on whether or not
anglo-american names like Kevin or Mandy
or like my name Kelly had some sort of
indication for a lower socioeconomic
status. this reminds me of a little story
that I'm gonna share with you guys where
there's really quite a few things to
unpack here but I went on a couple dates
with a German guy and I think it was
like our third date he said to me "you
know Kelly is a really trashy name in
Germany" and this stopped me in my tracks
actually because first of all, why would
my name be trashy and 2, why would you
share this with someone named Kelly? why
would you say, "your name is very trashy
in the country you're living in" so now I
understand the sentiment behind the
statement. he was trying to share a facet
of German culture with me and explained
that there is this sort of stigma in
Germany behind anglo-american names and
then 2, I think it was really an
introduction to the differences between
dating and American versus a German
where a lot of Germans are more blunt
and forthright with sharing
controversial statements with people
right after meeting them. so back to
names one last thing that really
surprised me about first names in
Germany is that the German government
dictates what you are allowed to name
your child and I
think that this is yet another factor on
the long list of ways that Germans are
more subjected to government regulation
than Americans. in the US, you can pretty
much name your kid anything you want
because it's seen as freedom of speech
or freedom of expression and of course
there's a reason why the German
government does this. the idea behind the
regulation is that the government wants
to make sure that a child is not
subjected to any sort of ridicule or
bullying based on their name so with the
idea that they are protecting children,
there's a government office that
actually has to approve of what Germans
name their children. in fact, there's a
list of pre-approved names that you can
select from but if you want to name your
child something that is not on that list,
you have to seek permission from this
office. I did some research to find some
examples that fit this sort of situation
and I learned about this couple who
wanted to name their child Berlin and I
think that this would really resonate
with a lot of Americans because there
are oftentimes people who name their
children after a place that means
something to the parents and so this
couple wanted to name their child Berlin
because it's the city in which they met
and they were denied they were told by
the government that they were not
allowed to name their child Berlin so
they got a lawyer or as we say in the
US, they lawyered up. I don't know if
anybody says that. and the lawyer was actually
able to use a precedent where a couple
successfully named their child London
and so this couple was in fact able to
name their kid Berlin. in the US I
don't have to look up examples because I
know so many people with names that I'm
pretty sure would not pass the test in
Germany. for example, I know a couple who
named their two children each after half
of the name of a mascot from my alma
mater, Penn State. so the girl is named
Nittany and the boy is named Lion to
make up Nittany Lion which is the mascot.
I also
worked with a guy whose name is Ace and
his twin brother's name is Joker. I know
a guy whose last name is Hunter and he
named his son Buck to make Buck Hunter
and I also know a couple whose last name
is Wiener and they named their first son
Maximus and their second son Oscar Mayer. what actually got me thinking about
making this video in the first place was
a news story that broke out a couple
months ago about a child in the US whose
name is Abcde. it's spelled with the
first five letters of the alphabet and I
guess she was made fun of by a Southwest
Airlines employee and so it was out in
the news about this crazy name Abcde.
and it turns out there are actually
quite a few people in the US already
with this name. it wasn't even the first
time that people had encountered the
name Abcde before. but in Germany it's
not even unorthodox names that aren't
allowed but also names that don't
accurately indicate the gender of the
baby. there are a lot of names in the
US that are what I would say bi-gender
but I can't think of any that are in
Germany. correct me if I'm wrong, but I
can't think of any names that I learned
or met someone in Germany that could be
used for both males and females. but like
I said in the US there are a ton of
names. my name for example, Kelly, can be
used for both men and women and then you
have names like Courtney, Ashley, Dana,
Kelsey, Lindsay...those are all names that
are predominantly female but can be used
for males as well. and then there's the
reverse - there are a lot of names that
are predominantly male names that can be
used for females. for example, Sam or Andy or Colby. and then lastly in Germany you
can't give your child a surname as a
first name you can't name your kid
Merkel or Kohl but in the US I would
say that this happens a lot. right now,
there's a very trendy name, Sawyer,
which you probably have heard of the
character Tom Sawyer and then there's
other names like Kennedy you probably
have heard of John F Kennedy, Carter like
Jimmy Carter...
I even know a girl whose name is Monroe
as in Marilyn Monroe. now I get this
sentiment behind wanting to protect kids
from being bullied but from my personal
experience and the opinions I have from
those personal experiences, kids can be
little assholes. they don't need a funny
name to bully someone and I think that
dictating what you're allowed to name
your kid only addresses the symptom of a
larger problem. instead of deciding
whether or not a couple should be
allowed to name their kid Berlin
maybe the focus should be on teaching
kids not to be little assholes. but I also
don't think that there's been any sort
of study to show that teachers treat
students differently based on their
names so maybe this is some sort of
cultural phenomenon that exists in
Germany that I'm just having a really
hard time understanding as an outsider
alright guys that's all I've got for you
but I'm really curious about what you
think! do you think that the government
should be able to dictate what you name
your kid? what do you think about the
fact that Bill Clinton's name is
actually William? did you know that
before you watched this video? and what do
you think about Kevinism? I hope that
you guys liked this video and if you did,
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