How well known internationally are Chavs?

Although my book is technically science fiction, it's a comedy and I wanted to know how notorious are British chavs across the globe? I had a brief email conversation with an Australian writer to declared "we call 'em Bogans over here", so I suspect there is at least some knowledge of them.

Well, due to a lot of popular English entertainment, I think a lot of people have a vague idea (in the US at least, that's all I can speak for). A lot of people watch Doctor Who and Guy Ritchie films, so they might go "oh yeah- chavs! I know what that means!"
If you needed to explain to a north american character what a chav is, you could say, I dunno... white trash? Offensive on several levels, but I think that's the closest synonym we've got.

Well the only North American character who has a run in with them spends most of the time before he is rescued in a drugged haze (kept sedated while they try to arrange an awkshun to sell him to the highest bidder), so he probably doesn't remember them.

Just wanted to know if it'd be a lost joke overseas. Thanks for the reply.

I don't know what chavs are, and I live in the US. I suspect that it depends on the person and the region, but I'm completely clueless about them. (Which is a bit odd, as I've liked in the UK. But I wander around with my head in the clouds a lot, so that's not entirely surprising.)

Just think a cross between 'trailer park trash' and 'ghetto punk'. They tend to wear tracksuits and trainers and lots of cheap jewellery, have no respect for anyone and speak a loud obnoxious kind of slang. In my book, they are all armed, and some of them have gone feral. If you saw the footage from the London riots in August, a lot of the looters could well be described as chavs.

There's several different notions as to where the term 'chav' comes from; some think it derives from 'Council House And Violent', others claim it's from the gypsy word for child, others that it's from a really bad lazy pronunciation of Chatham in Kent, where the 'fashion' started.

I heard about 'em in a review of Dr. Who. Rose was described as one, but the definition I read was Council House and Versace, to indicate that (much like a certain segment of the US population) they get government assistance and put their income to use for frivolities instead of things like actually improving their situations. One def or another, at least for me, the word conjures up a certain image, and now I want to read this story... Feral huh?

You could liken them to the Jersey Shore or the Real Housewives trash, if you wanted to explain it. Guidos/guidettes are probably the closest thing us Americans have, and if you mention that they're like any of the deplorable messes cluttering up our televisions, we'd get a pretty good idea.

Now granted, I'd heard of chavs through a "tacky weddings" photoblog that featured quite a lot of their weddings, and I looked up the term from there. Many of the comments from American visitors said things like "Where is this, New Jersey?" and while I'm begrudgingly proud of my state, it certainly says that mentioning the petri dishes calling themselves the cast of the Jersey Shore will conjure up the right image.

I've never heard of "chavs" or anything similar, but then again I'm not really into any sort of pop culture...

Never heard of Chavs (but I don't watch Dr. Who)

I don't watch Dr. Who, but I do watch BBC and I have never heard the term Chav.

Pfft. Sorry.Stupid no edit feature. I meant I watch BBC America.

New zealander. Seen Doctor Who but dont recall 'chav' in there at all.
Heard it in 'Auf Wiedesehen, Pet' and much later in either "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barels" or " Snatch"
when it was used in a way I thought meant Gypsies ( Pikeys).

Here, "bogans" are guys in check shirts often over black singlets, tight jeans, good boots, draggy cars; their "chicks" are in mini skirts, leopard dot tops, lots of bling, nevr without makeup and a new hairdo, wine sipping (glugging) and not necessary "white trash". Also known here as "Westies' (West Auckland)

I am from a rural, southern part of the U.S. but went to college in Sunderland, England for a semester. I don't think I've ever met another American who knows what a chav is. Actually, I used to call them chavers b/c my friends in the Northeast told me all about them before I went to Sunderland. We do have people in the U.S. who act similar to chavs, but I don't think a whole lot of Americans would get the reference unless they have some really close connections with the U.K. (or watch BBC America).

Canadian and we thought it was council housing, adidas, violent.

I didn't know what chavs are until last year xD

American and never heard the term, and i really like BBC america, Loved lock stock and Snatch... It must not have been featured enough of a word for me to catch on.

Looking at the thread i thought initially that it was talking about some sort of pastry before someone pointed out the phrase "white-trash."

American and never even heard the word before this thread.

I'm American and it took my English girlfriend a few minutes to be satisfied explaining it to me; I'd be surprised if any American readers understood it, though there's not a direct substitute as we don't really have them here.