I’ve noticed that people often call certain female names “grandmother” names or “decidedly middle-aged” or “mom” names. I don’t have any problem with these classifications, but I do have some questions.
One question is are these classifications fluid according to age or are they static?
For example, my great grandmothers (Martha, Birdie) were born in the late 1800’s, my grandmothers (Marjorie, Marcelle, Marion) were born just after the turn of the century, my mother and her friends (Sandi, Joetta, Johnnie) were born in the early 1940’s, I was born in the early 1960’s, and my unborn children (Cordelia) would have been born in the 1980’s or 90’s or early aughts.
A young nameberry user would have very different dates for these births.
So is a name that [name_f]Pam[/name_f] and [name_f]Linda[/name_f] and I might call “middle aged” or “mom” or “grandmother” the same name as someone born 20 years ago would consider it? Sorry, I can’t seem to edit that sentence to good grammar.
I’ve noticed this especially when a young writer will allude to a “mom” name as being something I might have named one of my kids. “Mom” names to me are [name_f]Sandra[/name_f], [name_f]Susanne[/name_f], [name_u]Joyce[/name_u], [name_f]Barbara[/name_f], [name_f]Karen[/name_f], [name_f]Carol[/name_f], and the like.
I’ve also noticed [name_f]Pam[/name_f] and [name_f]Linda[/name_f] calling a name like [name_f]Belva[/name_f] “decidedly middle-aged” yet I am middle-aged (or a tad above, unless I plan to live to 106!) and there were no Belvas in my generation! We were all [name_f]Debbie[/name_f] and [name_f]Missy[/name_f] and [name_u]Lisa[/name_u] and [name_u]Kelly[/name_u] and [name_f]Susan[/name_f] and [name_f]Laura[/name_f], etc.
So maybe it is less about when our actual grandmothers and moms were born and more about names simply sounding like old ladies or middle-aged ladies or young mothers? For example, Heidi will always sound like a little girl to me and Eunice will always sound old (old with bad bunions, alas).
No criticisms, just curious what folks think.