When grandparents don't dig "old" choices

So, I divulged my top contenders ([name]Matilda[/name]/g, [name]Alfred[/name]/b) to my grandma (born 1940) a couple days ago and, um. Hilarity ensued. (And by that I mean she was HORRIFIED and the look she gave me- oh man, I wasn’t really offended, I just couldn’t stop laughing!) She’s not the type to be rude about other peoples’ name choices or anything like that (my 4 mo. old cousin has a modern-sounding, perfect-for-him name and, though she had trouble pronouncing it at first, she had no objections). A few weeks ago I asked her if she’d ever been asked for her input when it came to her grandkids’ names, and if there was ever a case where she would’ve liked to be more involved, and she said no, it was the parents’ choice and her baby-naming days were over.

She also said she’d be behind whatever choice I made, but she was REALLY, ahh, shocked when I mentioned those. They were probably names that she often heard on adults when she was growing up, is all I can reckon.

Anyone else had an experience like this?

Thankfully, my grandparents are very much into unusual, vintage names, and so the extent of the disapproving reactions that I get from them is “Are you sure you won’t name her [name]Lettice[/name]?” However, I can get how they might be surprised that names like [name]Matilda[/name] and [name]Alfred[/name] (which I adore, by the way) are coming round again … sort of like your future grandchild telling you that they’ve decided to name the baby [name]Jessica[/name] or [name]Jennifer[/name]!

I’m nowhere near being pregnant, but my mom thinks my favorite girl names are really old-fashioned ([name]Sylvie[/name], [name]Diana[/name], [name]Cora[/name], [name]Adele[/name].) It’s just the generational gap. The names you like where probably your grandmother’s parents’ generation popular names.

BTW, I think [name]Tilly[/name] is the most adorable nickname.

I can’t imagine having grandchildren wanting to name their baby [name]Deborah[/name] or [name]Karen[/name]. That would be pretty funny. Boys name fashions change more slowly, so I can’t imagine [name]Michael[/name] becoming too dated. I could be very wrong, though!

Thank you all for the responses! :smiley: (And I’m glad so many Nameberryites approved of my choices. Guess even I need a little positive feedback sometimes, and I’m stubborn as steel, haha). I figured it was some sort of generation gap- the same reason my generation deems everything “[name]Bob[/name]”, because they find it cutesy but few of them would consider naming a child that. Unless they were [name]Charlie[/name] [name]Sheen[/name]. But he’s a lot older than me, soooo… x)

[name]Matilda[/name] hit its peak in 1918, [name]Alfred[/name] in 1928- definitely the “old fogies” or at the very least “boring grown-ups” of my grandma’s generation.

I love your choices! I had the same reaction from my mother-in-law when I mentioned that I was considering the name [name]Eleanor[/name]. She laughed and told me it was “…an old grandma’s name!”

It might be like if your future grandchildren told you they were going to name their baby [name]Darlene[/name] or [name]Earl[/name]. Because [name]Jessica[/name] wouldn’t sound old to you - those would be names of your generation.

It might be like if your future grandchildren told you they were going to name their baby [name]Darlene[/name] or [name]Earl[/name]. Because [name]Jessica[/name] wouldn’t sound old to you - those would be names of your generation.[/quote]

That’s true - I’m not very up on when [name]Matilda[/name] and [name]Alfred[/name] were popular. I stand corrected :slight_smile:

I recently asked my [name]MIL[/name] about her mother’s and other relatives names looking for ideas for our baby. She said [name]Elsie[/name] was her mother’s name and also her [name]MIL[/name]'s middle name. But the way she said it I could tell she wasn’t fond of it, or thought it was an old name. I told her that names like [name]Elsie[/name] were coming back into style. I don’t think she believed me at first… Then last week she said that she read in the church newsletter that someone just had a baby girl named [name]Elise[/name] [name]Marie[/name]! HA! Told you!

My parents are around your grandmother’s age! My mother would definitely shriek at a [name]Matilda[/name] or an [name]Alfred[/name], or at the very least, stick out her tongue and sound like she’s vomiting. Since I’m kind of older, then, I can’t quite get with those style of names sometimes either, but I don’t have a problem with [name]Matilda[/name] or [name]Alfred[/name] particularly. If this means anything to you, when I was young, I was totally crazy for some really weirdo old-fashioned names, I’m just over it lately, and I didn’t have any children named names I just lost interest in, to keep myself interested in them now. Of course, the sort of names I like now make everyone else want to heave; I think they’re pretty, but they’re sufficiently dated and in limbo, I guess, and unappealing to the upcoming generation of people who will someday be old and get a head start cringing at them now.

Aha! More proof that there is, indeed, a cycle to this whole name popularity business. :slight_smile:

I like the sounds of lots of names that just happen to fall within the not-ready-for-revival-at-all category of the unsteady Cool vs. Dated limbo. [name]Linda[/name] and [name]Mary[/name], [name]Kathy[/name] and [name]Donna[/name]- these names aren’t terribly different from the more popular [name]Lily[/name] and [name]Maddie[/name], [name]Katie[/name] and [name]Bella[/name]. [name]Even[/name] the ones from my generation that I’m completely burnt out on from hearing every day of my life for the past eighteen years ([name]Jessica[/name], [name]Ashley[/name], [name]Brittany[/name]; [name]Michael[/name], [name]Michael[/name], [name]Michael[/name]…) have nice sounds and aren’t so different from Nameberry favorites like [name]Odessa[/name] and [name]Gabriel[/name].

You mentioned opting for names that you were sure weren’t just a part of a phase, right? I think that’s important, too, and it’s always something I’ve considered whenever I think about the names I’d like to bestow on my children. My mom was sort of an Anglophile, and so growing up I read a lot about the monarchy; we also had tons of poetry books, and most of those poets had been dead for about fifty years… as a result, a lot of names which sound old to most of my generation and EVERYBODY who is older, don’t strike me as being unattractive. I mean, one person may cringe when they hear “[name]Edna[/name]” but all I can see is, “She held her gown on either side to let her slippers show, and up the walk she went with pride the way great ladies go…”