What age range are you?

[MummyToBe2001]

Hi!

I was just wondering what the average age of the posters are on MN baby name forum. I’m curious because I see a lot of “Susan, Jenny, David, John” name suggestions that feel very 70s to me.

I am just curious how many of us are in our 20s-30s because I feel like I’m one of the few!

@Dillanegasms ha! I’m from the sixties generation and my name is the same as the one you like from your generation!

Yes which is exactly my point….

I am seeing names that were once popular but now date be suggested (often) so I was curious of the average age of the posters.

And nearly 50% are 40+ which is what I thought.

Okay, @op

I'm almost 52 and fwiw, I very much dislike what i privately think of as 'fashion names', such as Milo, Rollo, Albie, Arlo... for girls, Margot, Erin, etc.

In my mind, these names are the moment's equivalent of Gary, Darren, Wayne. They have their moment in the light and will then fall back.

Even worse are names - very fashionable 10-15 years ago that are like sounds: Kya, Tia, Kye.

I guess this probably makes me sound like an ancient 70-year-old?

Not specifically a 70 year old, but definitely over 50

I think these names are suggested because posters often ask for 'unique' meaning unusual names which are known rather than 'made up' and then they list off several from the top 10 as examples of what they like. So these names are suggested as they are objectively 'good' names, that were very popular, they are currently unusual, there won't be another Susan in the primary class, but they are well know because well everyone knows them.. When what the poster really wants is to call their baby Noah or Leo, and banish all the others.

All that tells you is that 50% of people who took part in your poll are over 40. It tells you nothing about whether the people suggesting names like John and Susan are young or old.

You realise that the names that were popular in the 70s were chosen by people who would be 70+ now? 40 year olds weren’t even born in the 70s. People who were born in the 70s and have 70s names named their children things like Jack, Oliver, Thomas, Alfie, Sophie, Chloe, Isabella, Georgia, Aimee. Why do you think they would now prefer the names that their parents liked? If they liked 70s names, they would have given their DC 70s names 🙄

@MummyToBe2001 , the names you listed are names that were popular in the 1950s.
Names that were old fashioned when I was a kid were things like Arthur, George, Lily and Olive. May as a middle was terribly frumpy.

Yet, although I fit into your 'over 50' category, we've chatted about names in our extended family quite a bit over the last couple of years, with 2 new babies, one pregnancy, and then lots of my dc / dn 's friends having their first child (all of these people except one being in their 20s, and the one that isn't, is 31), and none of the next generation involved in these chats like the sort of boys names @cooljerk listed. We have one famiy member (in her late 60s) who does like those sorts of names.
So that rather ruins your hypothesis.

I suspect that what the OP thinks of as dated or very traditional names could just as easily be considered as classic names - John and David (and Robert?) yes but I suspect she might also count names like James, Edward, William, George, Henry, Alexander etc all of which are still very high in the Top 100.

And while these type of classic names did seem to be more popular with mothers who were 35 plus (back when ONS used to release those statistics); it’s probably just because more older mothers tend to be aware of the socioeconomic benefits of having a name that defies easy characterisation. Rather than that they dislike trendier or more modern names as such or wouldn’t suggest them for others.

I work with a wide variety of socioeconomic groups and suspect it may also be a class thing as much as an age thing. As while classic names used to seem to be used widely across all groups, anecdotally it does seem to be most popular now with the middle/upper middle classes imo (it’s not all St Johns and Ptolemys). That may also be because that social group tends to have children older though… And of course whether it’s true or not, Mumsnet is supposed to be famously middle class🤣

I have one of these names and I was born in the 90s.

None of them are to my taste but neither are the insanely popular old lady names at the moment. I think I’ve given my DC “real” names with no stereotypical age on them but who knows.

A good friend of mine has a teen daughter called Jennifer and I think it’s beautiful. It is a Cornish name (comes from Guinevere I think) and they are a very Cornish family. Their other children also have Cornish names. She is known as Jenny, Jen or Jennifer and none of these seem dated on her. As a teacher, I’ve taught many Davids too - really don’t think that’s dated either. (And I’m not in the 50-99 category, btw).

"Yes which is exactly my point….
*
I am seeing names that were once popular but now date be suggested (often) so I was curious of the average age of the posters.

And nearly 50% are 40+ which is what I thought.*"

But that makes no sense at all for the names you mentioned! I'm in my 60s - those are the names of my generation,and I didn't call my children names like that.
My parents (who did choose them) were born in the 1920/30s and I doubt that many of those are posting on MN.
Whoever is suggesting those names I would expect to be significantly younger than in their 40s or 50s- I'd be either suggesting random names,or names from my grandparents generation,which of course you might still think were old fashioned.....but not from my generation, or from my parents generation which is my peak "those are old people names" time ( including John - not many young Johns around when I was growing up)

49 here… I would never suggest boring names like Sue, Jenny, Ben or Mark.