Gen-Z naming trends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. Both of my Gen-Z cousins who have had kids went the gender neutral name route. Their kids are Taylor, Emerson, Sage, Finley, and Evers.

I may be in the minority, but I like "older" sounding names like Dorothy, Daisy, Janet, etc. for girls.

I'm 45 and named my oldest Maeve 20 years ago.

None of those names read as neutral to me. They are all girl names as in I know girls with all those names (except Evers).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. Both of my Gen-Z cousins who have had kids went the gender neutral name route. Their kids are Taylor, Emerson, Sage, Finley, and Evers.

I may be in the minority, but I like "older" sounding names like Dorothy, Daisy, Janet, etc. for girls.

I'm 45 and named my oldest Maeve 20 years ago.

None of those names read as neutral to me. They are all girl names as in I know girls with all those names (except Evers).

Those names read very neutral to me. My son’s preschool class has a boy named Taylor and another boy named Emerson. I don’t know any Evers but my kid’s school is filled with Everests, Everleys, and Averys of both sexes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. Both of my Gen-Z cousins who have had kids went the gender neutral name route. Their kids are Taylor, Emerson, Sage, Finley, and Evers.

I may be in the minority, but I like "older" sounding names like Dorothy, Daisy, Janet, etc. for girls.

I'm 45 and named my oldest Maeve 20 years ago.

None of those names read as neutral to me. They are all girl names as in I know girls with all those names (except Evers).

The read as girl names to you because they have become used as girl names. But like the other names discussed in the thread who were previously masculine names (or last names, which tend to trend masculine because of patriarchal naming traditions), they were once neutral or masculine. So just as Ashley is now virtually never used as a boy name anymore, even though prior to the 1960s it was ONLY a boys name. There was a time when if you heard the name Ashley, you would assume it referred to a man and would have been surprised to learn it was a woman. The same is true of the names above.

There is also something happening here where femininity can be expansive -- we have fought hard to ensure that femininity can also encompass things like sportiness, an interest in science or math, rationality, and other things that used to be considered "masculine" traits. But masculinity remains more restricted. We still struggle with the idea that masculinity can encompass things like being a caretaker, qualities like kindness and empathy, or even interests in the arts or something like fashion. It's not impossible, and of course their are men who encompass these things, but there are still lots of people who struggle to associate these traits with men and masculinity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. Both of my Gen-Z cousins who have had kids went the gender neutral name route. Their kids are Taylor, Emerson, Sage, Finley, and Evers.

I may be in the minority, but I like "older" sounding names like Dorothy, Daisy, Janet, etc. for girls.

I'm 45 and named my oldest Maeve 20 years ago.

None of those names read as neutral to me. They are all girl names as in I know girls with all those names (except Evers).

They’re either feminine or just plain weird. Poor kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remember that online content is written to get you to click. I'll bet there's a kernel of truth, but in practice, most people will name their kids Henry or Eleanor.

Not Henry or Eleanor. You have to think the next generation of grandma names. We'll be seeing baby Susan, Lisa, Amy, Jennifer, Jessica, Heather, Angela, Christine, Scott, Kevin, Brad. . .

It's like the Boomer generation names got skipped. Where are all the little Barbara, Carol, Linda, Donna, Karen, Lois, Deborah and Cheryls? Will the next generation go straight to Gen X names?

Well, there are still a lot of Boomers out there with those names so no scarcity there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. Both of my Gen-Z cousins who have had kids went the gender neutral name route. Their kids are Taylor, Emerson, Sage, Finley, and Evers.

I may be in the minority, but I like "older" sounding names like Dorothy, Daisy, Janet, etc. for girls.

I'm 45 and named my oldest Maeve 20 years ago.

None of those names read as neutral to me. They are all girl names as in I know girls with all those names (except Evers).

Those names read very neutral to me. My son’s preschool class has a boy named Taylor and another boy named Emerson. I don’t know any Evers but my kid’s school is filled with Everests, Everleys, and Averys of both sexes.

Some of the names start as boy names then get co-opted as girl names. Like Taylor. Taylor Swift ring a bell? Emerson was #155 for girls and #267 for boys according to SSN in 2020. Avery was #19 for girls, but only #212 for boys. Taylor was #161 for girls, #597 for boys. These are all much more popular for girls than boys which is why they read as girl, it's not a coincidence. As soon as girls start getting the name the popularity falls off for boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just read this article and it blew my mind: https://nameberry.com/blog/how-gen-z-will-revolutionize-baby-names

First off, I had no idea Gen Z was so different than Millennials with naming trends. I'm an old Millenial and we are not that different than Gen X in our choices. I have lots of Gen X friends and their kids are named stuff that is a similar vibe to what we are considering (for reference our short list includes Daisy and Maxine). Other than the nature names mentioned in the article, none of the trends mentioned sound appealing. And even with the nature names, I think I gravitate to more traditional names (like, for instance, Daisy for a girl) than some of the stuff they mention (Tupelo? Gull?).

I sort of get the idea of choosing a name that could go non-binary or masculine/feminine (they mention Thomas Jane, for instance) to reflect changing attitudes about gender. One reason Maxine is appealing to us is that it's a feminine name that could easily go more masculine if our DD decides when she is older that she is a not a feminine person. But the idea of choosing a name like Nyx or something sounds like too much for me. Just not my thing.

Any actual Gen Zers on here who can weigh in. Or younger millennials -- maybe this doesn't sound as out there to you? I know I'm old.

I‘m Gen X and was pleasantly surprised that my baby name fit very well with the Gen Z naming trends (at least according to the article) My daughter has a double first name where the first part is more classically feminine and the second part is a more masculine name. The first part is a strong short Z name. I guess it doesn’t sound out there to me and I’m really old for a FTM with a baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone from here on should be named Pat. The end.

or Chris

or Echo