Millennials will remember how their kindergarten class had six Ashleys and four Amandas—and for some reason, all of their middle names were Marie. In my kindergarten class, we had so many Ashley Maries (and three with the same last name even!) that they had to go by Ashley Star, Ashley Heart, and Ashley Smiley Face symbols next to their names, and the teachers called all of them by their first name and symbol.
Well, all the Ashleys and Amandas are old now, and apparently, they have “old lady names” according to this Millennial mom’s daughter.
Amber (another popular 90s name) shared on her now viral video on TikTok that her daughter said she had an “old name.” Funny, because now all the kids in my son’s class have what I would consider “old names,” like Henry, Dorothy, Agnes, and Bismark. One person in the comments of her video said, “Funny how they have no clue that they have ‘old people names.’” Or are they “old people names” now or is this relative? Talk about an existential crisis to have at 9 a.m. on a Friday as I write this article.
“Amber is the new Barbara,” mom Amber captioned on her TikTok. She said her daughter told her that her teacher’s names are Miss Erica, Miss Samantha, etc. And then she told her there are Amandas and Ashleys but “those are old people names.”
“Whereas ‘young people names’, like my daughter is Scarlett, there are Charlottes, Olivias, Penelopes, Isabellas, Bellas, Ellas…those are considered young people names,” Amber said in the video.
“So basically for me, Ashley is always going to be like my friend from elementary,” Amber continued, “So it’s always going to sound like a kid name to me. But it’s not.”
“Ashley, Amanda, Amber, all of these names are basically the new Margaret or Barbara,” Amber concluded.
The winning comment on the video, however, was this throwback to ‘90s pop music. “If you got a shout out in Mambo Number 5, congrats you now have a granny name lol.”
So true.
