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“Mom� and “dad� names not currently used much for babies.


Ginevra
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Pretty much every name I grew up with is on the list, lol.

 

I don't think I saw Erin or Corinne yet.  Probably Courtney.  At least, Courtney with a C! :-p

Did anyone already say Kelly? I saw lots of Karen references, but Kelly was even bigger in my school.

 

Jeremy is one I always loved.

 

I did know a Morgan in the early 80s, and I used that one in the early 00s.  We do run into a few here and there, but not a whole lot.

 

 

 

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I have never met a small child with my name: Kathy (no, it not short for Kathrine or Kathleen).

I also haven't come across any children named:

Dara

Denise

Linda

Deborah

Marcy

Jill

Nancy

Allison

Renee

Ruth

Lisa

Sherry

Shari

Melissa

Stacy

Suzanne

 

And for Boys

Wayne

Bruce

Frank

Saul

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My best friend in elementary's name was Wenjia (her given name); her parents had come to the US the year before from China. They seriously discussed renaming her Wendy, and when her little brother was born they named him Willis. Though they held strongly to their social traditions at home - spoke only Chinese, ate homemade Chinese food, required Wenjia to spend 2+ hours a day after school learning Chinese and accelerated math (at age 7!) - they did value assimilation in some ways, and names were one. I think they felt if she and her brother had American-sounding names they'd have an easier time fitting in.

We had family friends in school that were Chinese. Similar story...very traditional upbringing, named William, Jane, and Kevin.

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I have never met a small child with my name: Kathy (no, it not short for Kathrine or Kathleen).

 

The Kathryn/Katherine/Catherines are all Katie or Kat now--our dc have known several.

 

Also, multiple names. Anne Elizabeth, Anna Louise, Mary Katherine, Mary Claire. A decent number of my friends growing up sounded like the nuns in Sister Act, at least if their parents were speaking.

 

My boys went to school with several girls with similar names. And all went by both names, not just the first name or a nickname. But my dd--who is 7 years younger--doesn't have any classmates who are similarly named. Maybe it was a weird hiccup in this area for baby naming in the mid-late 90s.

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I have never met a small child with my name: Kathy (no, it not short for Kathrine or Kathleen).

I also haven't come across any children named:

Dara

Denise

Linda

Deborah

Marcy

Jill

Nancy

Allison

Renee

Ruth

Lisa

Sherry

Shari

Melissa

Stacy

Suzanne

 

And for Boys

Wayne

Bruce

Frank

Saul

 

My daughter is named Ruth and there is a 3rd grader at our church also named Ruth.

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And then there was the 'matching' names trend.

 

My cousins were named Tannis, Travis and Trevor, I had friends with a Trevor and a Troy, another set of friends with a Tania and a Tara, DH is a Trevor and his sister is Tania.  I think that is also a hallmark of that era.

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It's interesting--my 13 yo dd started at a new school recently, and about a third of the students are children of Asian immigrants.  Some of her friends' names are Linda, Cindy, Helen, Nancy, Fred and Angie. :)

 

I went to a school that was about 40% Asian. There were a Fred, Frank, Sinclair, Grace, Helen, Albert, Ernie, and Ellen.

 

Mary is one I rarely hear anymore. 

 

I also had a lot of Kurt's when I was growing up but I don't hear them often anymore. 

 

I don't hear Mary by itself, but here, the double names are making a comeback - Mary Ellen and Mary Grace are ones I've heard lately. 

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I went to a school that was about 40% Asian. There were a Fred, Frank, Sinclair, Grace, Helen, Albert, Ernie, and Ellen.

 

 

I don't hear Mary by itself, but here, the double names are making a comeback - Mary Ellen and Mary Grace are ones I've heard lately.

I love Mary paired with other names. I have always been smitten with Mary Kate, it sounds so sweet to me.

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Boy names from my childhood that I never hear children called in last 15+ years: Preston, Jason, David, Brian, Scott, Kevin, Brandon, Brendan, Richard, Blake, Robert. 

 

What I've noticed more with boys are that I don't hear nicknames as much anymore as I did growing up. Chip, Trey, Rocky, that sort of thing. 

 

I've noticed the nick name thing too.

 

My dad and his twin are/were Robert and William, everyone called the Bob/Bobby and Billy.  heir brothers were Thomas (Tom/Tommy) and Kenneth (Kenny.)

 

I never meet little kids with those kinds of nicknames now.  (Rick or Dick for Richard is another one.)

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Boy names from my childhood that I never hear children called in last 15+ years: Preston, Jason, David, Brian, Scott, Kevin, Brandon, Brendan, Richard, Blake, Robert. 

 

What I've noticed more with boys are that I don't hear nicknames as much anymore as I did growing up. Chip, Trey, Rocky, that sort of thing. 

Just to tie into this, I know two boys who are 14-16 named Preston & Blake.

 

I went to a large high school and we had so many Jennifer’s and Angela’s, many that even shared last names, that they had to be identified by middle initial. Jennifer B Smith, Jennifer L Smith and so on.

My husband works with 5-7 guys on a crew. On one of his crews within the last couple of years, he was the only one who wasn't married to a Jennifer. They had several running jokes - address the holiday card to your crewmate + "Jennifer" and you'll get it right almost every time. (Yes, all our holiday cards that year were to DH's name & Jennifer.) All of them were "Jennifer" - not Jen or Jenny. One crewmate's wife went through a messy divorce with his Jennifer . . . and married another Jennifer a couple of years later.  :ohmy:  (Anne/Ann was very popular growing up to the point that there were four of us named Ann/Anne and three had the same middle name, too! Emily/Emma seemed to be the popular repeat of this in the early 00s.)

 

I don't hear Mary by itself, but here, the double names are making a comeback - Mary Ellen and Mary Grace are ones I've heard lately. 

 

In Catholic circles, it is not uncommon to have several "Mary [second name]"s running around. Mary Anne, Mary Kate, Mary Ellen . . . \

 

I forgot to add the name I thought of:

Sheila.

 

I actually know a Sheila that is a college freshman this year. When I heard about the family, I thought the Mom was named Sheila. I was so wrong...

Edited by RootAnn
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Usually the only other Alison/Allisons I meet are my age (upper 30s) but I did meet a young college student recently who is an Alyson....

 

I know two girls, ages 11 and 12, named Allison. I also know teen boys named Preston and Blake. ETA: I just remembered two more young Allisons, so maybe that's still a somewhat popular name?

 

What about Janet as an uncommon current name? We had lots of them in my school.

Edited by mom2scouts
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I actually know a Sheila that is a college freshman this year. When I heard about the family, I thought the Mom was named Sheila. I was so wrong...

 

I get a lot of people who mix up my name with one of my girls' names. My name was rare in the 70's but common now. My girls' names were popular in the 70's (those were the only types of names DH considered "normal" enough to agree to) but uncommon now. Think Caitlin mom to Stacey and Melissa and you get the idea.

 

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In Catholic circles, it is not uncommon to have several "Mary [second name]"s running around. Mary Anne, Mary Kate, Mary Ellen . . . \

 

You reminded me: back in college I met a gal whose family was Catholic and she and her five (yes!) sisters were all named Mary. They went by their middle names which were all different, at least.

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And then there was the 'matching' names trend.

 

My cousins were named Tannis, Travis and Trevor, I had friends with a Trevor and a Troy, another set of friends with a Tania and a Tara, DH is a Trevor and his sister is Tania.  I think that is also a hallmark of that era.

 

This is still pretty common here in the rural midwest. I know of quite a few families whose kids all have names starting with the same letter (J seems to be the most popular). I also know of one family whose kids all have names with y in them (think Madisyn, Aspyn, Carsyn - ugh). And my dh knew a family in which all the girls' names ended with the -een sound - Colleen, Jolene, and Juleen.

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You reminded me: back in college I met a gal whose family was Catholic and she and her five (yes!) sisters were all named Mary. They went by their middle names which were all different, at least.

 

Yep. Family in the Catholic homeschool circle has all Mary ______ for the 5+ girls. The boys (2? 3?) all have different first and middle names. I like the name Mary, but am not a fan of this technique. 

 

This is still pretty common here in the rural midwest. I know of quite a few families whose kids all have names starting with the same letter (J seems to be the most popular). I also know of one family whose kids all have names with y in them (think Madisyn, Aspyn, Carsyn - ugh). And my dh knew a family in which all the girls' names ended with the -een sound - Colleen, Jolene, and Juleen.

 

I know a lot of families that do this - C, M, J (two or three of these) - come to mind. I joked to one of my friends would need to keep having babies to keep her alphabet theme going. They had an A, (dad is a B), C, E, and an I. She's a good friend, so she's forgiven me (and named her most recent baby an "A" name again). 

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Linda

Carol

Cheryl

Sharon

Karen

Joanne

Joan

Janet

Susan (but I see Susanna)

Lisa

Margaret/Meg/Peggy

Sandy (but Alexandra and Alexis are popular)

 

 

It's interesting--my 13 yo dd started at a new school recently, and about a third of the students are children of Asian immigrants.  Some of her friends' names are Linda, Cindy, Helen, Nancy, Fred and Angie. :)

 

My son knows a lot of young Asian-American women (20-year-olds) with not "mom" but "grandma" (!) names -- Bertha, Shirley, etc. And "mom" names like Carol. (Haven't seen any Ediths or Mildreds, though! haha)

(We also know plenty of 30-something Mexican-Americans my age w/"grandma" names like Bertha.)

 

 

 

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I've seen a lot of names here of people I know (or family members) who are in the 40-60 yrs. age range. The exception is that I know several Heathers all born in the late 80s to early 90s, yet the name is no longer popular.

 

Names seem to go in cycles. When I was growing up Emily was an old lady name. It became popular again in the early 2000s but is on the decline again. In 40 or 50 years it will be an old lady name once again.

 

It didn't occur to me until a year or so ago that I have an old lady name -Kathy/Kathleen.

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We sell a lot of labels to middle-aged ladies named Deb or Deborah or Debbie.  Fair number of Lindas, Kathleens, Margarets/Peg/Peggy (although I think Catholicism keeps Margaret from ever going too far out of style).

 

When I was in school Sara (my name) was the most popular, although with an H normally.  Also a lot of Katies, from all kinds of sources (Catherines, Katherines, Katelyns, etc.), Rachels, Heathers, Elizabeths.

 

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For boys, I sometimes hear the basic name, but not with the use of these nicknames:

Bob or Bobby

Mike

Steve

Danny

Chuck

Freddy

Tim (or the full name, Timothy)

 

Girls (besides some I've seen listed several times above):

Belinda

Melinda

Joy

Joyce

Daphne

Beth

Kathy (as a nickname)

Sharon

Polly

Laura

Christa

Nicole

 

 

Edited by Jaybee
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Also, multiple names. Anne Elizabeth, Anna Louise, Mary Katherine, Mary Claire. A decent number of my friends growing up sounded like the nuns in Sister Act, at least if their parents were speaking.

I know several little girls with multiple names. Two of my favorites are Belle Grace and Mary Ellie.
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We sell a lot of labels to middle-aged ladies named Deb or Deborah or Debbie. Fair number of Lindas, Kathleens, Margarets/Peg/Peggy (although I think Catholicism keeps Margaret from ever going too far out of style).

 

When I was in school Sara (my name) was the most popular, although with an H normally. Also a lot of Katies, from all kinds of sources (Catherines, Katherines, Katelyns, etc.), Rachels, Heathers, Elizabeths.

I think some full names stay around because they can be used and still have an updated nickname.

My sister is Beth (Elizabeth), I wouldn't use the nickname Beth for Elizabeth now but I love Liza, Ellie, and Libby.

Same with Margaret or Catherine, there's a lot of good nickname possibilities.

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Sarah is VERY popular right now. I've got a first grader named Sarah in my AWANA class, a second grader named Sarah in my American Heritage Girls class and my daughter has a different 1st grader named Sarah in her class.

 

I also have a Joshua in the 1st grade AWANA class and know of two others in the under 10 set.

 

Joshua has fallen from #4 the 1980s, but was still at #33 in 2015. 

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