French Christian Names - Anglophiles?

[AnotherArch]

Halftime research whilst bored.
Have you seen the christian names of the French substitutes tonight?
Whilst the starting eleven have all French or African christian names, including all those playing in England, the substitutes are a different matter (according to Sky Sports). There is a: Jimmy, a Jeremy, and Anthony, a Steve and .....a Kevin !

 

[captainmorganrum]

A few years ago KEVIN was the number one name for babies born.
Or so I read somewhere.

 

[Gwylan]

For some reason that I've never worked out, Jimmy is quite popular in France. I think it's seen as an archetypal British/American name and is consequently quite chic. Poet/singer Boris Vian's musical arranger was called Jimmy and there's a French cable channel called Jimmy.

The others are more bizarre as there are a French equivalents of all those names (except Kevin). Mind you, I expect the French are equally baffled when Brits call their kids Chardonnay and Chanel.

 

[Frutos]

Is it not more likely in the case of names like Jeremy and Kevin that they were originally French names which came over here with the Norman Conquest and have been anglicised in their pronounciation?

 

[Gwylan]

Is it not more likely in the case of names like Jeremy and Kevin that they were originally French names which came over here with the Norman Conquest and have been anglicised in their pronounciation?

That's certainly true (although I think Kevin is Irish and probably became popular after the big wave of Irish immigration in the 1840s/1850s) but why use the anglicised names rather then the French Jerome, Etienne and Antoine?

 

[Horses Arse]

A French woman told me these 'awfull' names were the result of some dreadful sit-com that was being shown on French telly - no idea if true!