The Millennial Baby Names That Already Feel Old (Looking At You, Jessica)
Growing up, you have a general idea of what sounds like an “old person” name. When you’re playing grannies with your friends, you pick a name like Ethel or Lucille — these are the names our grandparents had, so those are the names all old people have... right? Wrong. You see, what makes a name sound old is just the fact that the oldest people alive at any given time have them, which means the Ambers, Seans, and Tiffanys of the world don’t have long before they’re the new Reginalds and Corneliuses. (As a Katie who is married to a Zack, our family is going to be hit hard.) These are the millennial names our kids are going to call old — and actually, they already are.
As Scary Mommy reported last year, in a very unofficial survey, TikTok creator Kelley Cole (@kelleykelleykelley) asked a bunch of teens what they consider to be old lady names. The list is damning for those of us born between 1981 and 1996, also known as millennials. They listed names like Jordan, Ashley, Crystal, Kelly, Stephanie, Stacey, and more. Interestingly, their list of “young woman” names sounds a lot more like we’d consider old lady names, proving the cyclical nature of naming trends. The list included Ava, Emma, Abigail, Isabelle, Rose, and Gracie.
Unfortunately, just because your name wasn’t included in this very specific list from one TikTok user does not mean you’re safe from having an old person name. According to the Social Security Administration, some of the most consistently popular boy names between ‘81 and ‘96 were:
- Aaron
- Adam
- Andrew
- Brandon
- Brian
- Christopher
- Daniel
- Eric
- Jesse
- Joshua
- Justin
- Kevin
- Mark
- Matthew
- Michael
- Nathan
- Nicholas
- Patrick
- Ryan
- Sean/Shawn
- Steven/Stephen
- Travis
And for girls? Well, let’s just say you know at least one person with each of these names:
- Amanda
- Amber
- Ashley
- Christine/Christina
- Danielle
- Elizabeth
- Erica
- Heather
- Jennifer
- Jessica
- Katherine/Kathryn/Katie
- Kimberly
- Laura/Lauren
- Megan
- Melissa
- Michelle
- Nicole
- Rachel
- Rebecca
- Sarah
- Stephanie
- Tiffany
Of course, there were other names that cropped up throughout those 15 years that saw massive popularity, but just didn’t linger in the Top 50 names the entire time. Think names like Samantha, Dustin, Chad, Shannon, Kyle, and Allison. In the ‘90s, some specific names leapt up the popularity charts, like Zachary (thanks, Saved by the Bell), Tyler, Cody, Taylor, Jasmine, Kayla, Chelsea, Austin, Alexis, Shelby, Madison, and Dylan. These names all have a distinctly 1990s feel now that, unfortunately, our children are now going to recognize as old people names, even though they’re the babiest of the millennials.
Whether we like it or not, it is now our lot in life to be called old by some little twits named Brayden and Nevaeh. “How does it feel to have one foot in the grave?” they imply. But fear not: Our names will almost certainly come back around, and who will be laughing then?
source https://www.scarymommy.com/lifestyle/millennial-baby-names-that-already-feel-old
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