Popular names Generation Alpha believe are “for old people”
Today's youth have a very different idea of what constitutes an "old person" name, and one mum was left flabbergasted after a conversation she had with her six-year-old daughter about her classmates’ names.
“You know what I find wild? I have an eight-year-old and a six-year-old, and the names of their friends, I can’t even pronounce some of them,” Australian entrepreneur and mum-of-two Steph Pase said in a now viral TikTok.
“I asked her, so do you have anyone in your year called Sarah, Alex, Jack or Daniel?
“She laughed and said ‘they’re old people names!’.”
She then probed her daughter with a few other common names saying: “I asked, what about Steph … Michelle … she’s like no,” she laughed.
“It just makes me realise, that we are that generation … our parents’ generation. Names like Helen, Karen or Joanna … now we’re that generation.
“We have the old people names.”
She captioned her video with the text "Millennial names are officially old" and many of her followers agreed with the upsetting revelation.
“In my classes we have Vision, Stoney, Diesel, Hennesy, Blaze, Cruze, Kingdom, Ace, Boss, Oasis, Mercedes, Destiny,” one shared.
“Luna, Harper & Arlo are the new Ashley, Jessica & Stephanie,” another said.
“The names in my kids classes are Lamb, Honey, Hazard, Blu, Bambi,” another added.
“My six year old has a girl in his class named ‘Summah’ and another called ‘Phox’ because Fox was too mainstream,” a fourth wrote.
“My daughter has a Moses, Twayla, Lorde it’s wild …” a fifth commented.
Baby name expert and CEO of Fifth Dimension Consulting Lyndall Spooner told news.com.au that there are a few reasons why there's been a shift in children's names over the years, including popularity, less pressure to follow traditional family names, and a trend towards more gender-neutral names.
“Parents want their children to be unique and so they use nouns or verbs as names, or character names from books, TV shows, movies, shopping chains or cars," she said.
And while the "millennial names" are not as common, "they are not extinct".
“We will continue to see changes in baby names and the ‘recycling’ of older names that become popular again,” she told the publication.
Images: TikTok