[5] The issue of whether parents of lower socioeconomic status tend more to give their children exotic or Anglo-American names has been discussed among German sociologists from completely opposite points of view.
[5] According to a master's thesis authored at the University of Oldenburg in 2009, certain given names of students can indeed lead to prejudices on the part of teachers.
[7] For example, the name "Kevin" (an anglicised name of Irish origin), given to a German child, indicates to German teachers that such a student is prone to attention-seeking behaviour, as well as lower scholastic performance, and is also indicative of a lower socioeconomic status.
[9] English given names in East Germany were particularly popular in the two decades preceding German reunification.
[11] The phenomenon in Germany, especially during limited periods of time, that particularly popular given names are associated with negative prejudices to the point of being used as swear words, is not new from a linguistic perspective.