Many name enthusiasts have hypothesized that older parents are more likely than younger ones to pick names on the trailing end of fashion (in other words slightly behind the times), because their fashion sense was set a decade or two before the prime age group of new parents. From my observations their is a slight correlation along those lines for the long-breeding (e.g. Duggar-like) who continue having kids into their 40s and those who otherwise end up with a “surprise” baby. However, it’s also true that another group that has a tendency to delay childbearing, the highly educated ones, tend to be the trailblazers of old-fashioned revivals; in that case the opposite is true with regards to the general hypothesis.
I have many friends who had children in their early 40’s. It seems the trend is family name, classic name, or name that was trendy many years ago. I have friends who had their 2nd at 42 and 43 ( older sister is 17, named [name]Kaylee[/name]) and the little girl is [name]Megan[/name]. My other friend had twin girls who are alnost 2. Her and her dh had the names [name]Allison[/name] and [name]Victoria[/name] picked out for years and just used them now. [name]One[/name] of my closest friends had her boys at 38, 40 and 42 and named them [name]George[/name], [name]Joseph[/name] ([name]Joe[/name]) and [name]Francis[/name] ([name]Frank[/name]).
My mom had me when she was 42. When she named me [name]Alexandra[/name] she thought she was begin original little did she know that that year it hit #96 and broke top 100. When I was 14 it hit it’s all time high at #27. I think maybe it just has more to do with the person and not the age. IT would be interesting to ask those parents what they would have named their kids if they had had them in their mid 20s. It’s hard to say otherwise.
As for the Duggars - I’m not sure trendy has anything to do with that in fact I think they just started limiting themselves with every name starting with a J - I mean 19 kids later you’ve got to be feeling put in a corner don’t you? [name]How[/name] many people can think of 20 distinct names starting with any letter they are truly in love with?
The oldest first-time mom I know had names like [name]Tallulah[/name] and [name]Sadie[/name] on her list and, ultimately, went with [name]Scarlett[/name]. A teenage daughter of a friend of mine picked the somewhat dated [name]Brandon[/name]. I feel like I see classics, dated names, and current names used by moms of all ages, so I think it depends a lot on the individual.
I definitely see what you’re saying. I’ve worked with a lot of parents who were “more established” (financially, educationally, etc,) when they had kids, and a lot of them were “trailblazers.” I’ve seen [name]Harry[/name] (not common in the states,) [name]Winston[/name], [name]Nicodemus[/name] (I kid you not), and others I can’t think of at the moment. I’ve also seen more of a trend toward the classic/trendy, such as [name]Anna[/name], [name]Emma[/name], [name]Christina[/name], and [name]Ella[/name] with this “established” subgroup.
As a side note, I also believe my husband and I will ultimately fall into this subgroup as well. I guess you could say we are both “highly educated,” (what is the qualification? We both have Master’s.) We are having kids later than most others in our age group. And we definitely [name]DON[/name]'T go for trendy or dated. Currently, our list includes: [name]Henrietta[/name], [name]Josephine[/name], [name]Thomasina[/name], [name]Iris[/name], [name]Theodora[/name], [name]Gideon[/name], [name]Dean[/name], [name]Otis[/name], and [name]Otto[/name].
As a ‘older’ wannabe mum (trying…) I am VERY conscious of what type of name I would choose. I want a name that isn’t so trendy it will date stamp the child. I don’t want an unusual name (although I do like some believe it or not) as I feel our hoped for child will have ‘older parents’ they don’t need an additional quirk of an unusual name. For this reason I want a top 100ish name, but prefer to choose a name that it consistently popular rather than trendy. As educated people we would avoid some types of names- I would never use a surname as a FN for example as I feel it is a current trend, not into “[name]Everly[/name]/ [name]Avery[/name]/ [name]Waverly[/name]” or “…dan” names either.
This is very interesting. It makes sense, but it also doesn’t necessarily mesh with my experience.
Older mothers (34+, I’m not sure if that’s counting?) I know of:
My grandmother: 1 classic, 1 very rare name that was on-trend in its sound structure.
My mother: 1 very on-trend name (me, [name]Jessica[/name])
My husband’s mother: 1 classic (who shared with me she would have used [name]Jessica[/name] if my husband had been a girl!)
My good friend’s friend: 2 very on-trend
My good friend: 2 very on-trend
Actually, the two people I can think of who have used mildly dated names were both “younger” parents (although even all that is pretty subjective?): late 20s parents. [name]One[/name] of those had a second child with an on-trend name.
I went to high school with (at least) 3 girls who had babies like immediately after high school, and (the ones I know of) they picked names that were very uncommon (not dated, just unexpected) for the time that are now very on-trend: THAT’s an interesting thing, to me.
I will most likely be an older mother if we’re counting 34 as the turning point…regardless, my taste is pretty much all classic (with girls’ names somewhat more subject to some trends).
If there is some truth to the dated name thing, I wonder if it’s about power dynamics in the marriage? Men seem to like dated names more than women in my experience, so I wonder if dads are having more sway on the naming when the parents are older?