Woman Reveals Names Gen Z Thinks Are 'Old Lady Names'

Picking a baby name is a big decision. So some parents may be dismayed to find out that Gen Z has its own baby name list—ones they think sound like "old lady names."

In a TikTok video, creator Kelley Cole explains which names made it on to the "old" list, and the results might surprise you.

Why It Matters

Baby naming trends can often reflect broader cultural shifts and social values. The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently released its list of the most used baby names in the United States for 2024, with Olivia and Liam maintaining their reign as America's top choices for the sixth consecutive year.

Newcomers on the list included Truce and Colsen for boys and Ailany and Marjorie for girls.

What To Know

"I was told my name was an old lady name by the teenagers on the adolescent unit I was working on a few months ago," Cole says in the video that has been viewed more than 350,000 times. "I was surprised."

Cole goes on to explain that teens shared with her what names are old lady names versus "young names."

The list of names that the teens said were old lady names is: Ashley, Amanda, Jessica, Stephanie, Jennifer, Christie, Tracy, Stacey, Amy, Crystal, Kelly, Lisa, Jordan, Michelle, Shelly, Laura, Laurie, Kathy, Tammy, Heather, Angela and Angie.

The young girl names were Bella, Isabelle, Olivia, Olive, Ava, Eden, Abigail and Abbie, Ella, Gracie, Zoe and Rose.

And it's not the first time that so-called old lady names have sparked a debate between generations on TikTok. In 2024, a creator named Amber posted a video on the topic that went viral, receiving 4.3 million views as of reporting.

"The other day my daughter told me the name Ashley or Amanda, or my name is Amber, are like old people names," she says in the video. "I never thought about it this way, but she's like, 'yeah my teachers' names are like Miss Erica, Miss Samantha, there's Amandas and Ashleys—those are just old people names.'"

Amber went on to list some of the young names her daughter had highlighted, including Scarlet, Charlotte, Olivia, Penelope, Isabella, Bella and Ella.

Though the two videos were posted more than a year apart, there is overlap in what the group of young people told Cole, and what Amber's daughter told her, were old and young people's names.

What People Are Saying

Kelley Cole said in an email shared with Newsweek: "I think they the consider the names old lady names because their millennial moms and gen x grandmothers have these names. It was an interesting conversation."

What Happens Next

Cole's remarks about the young names being "grandma names" taps into a key naming trend. There is a theory around names called the 100-year rule, where names cycle in and out of a fashion and it takes a century for the cycle to complete.

In practice, this means names that were common for the grandparents or great-grandparents of Gen Z could be about to come back. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for their parents' names, but they may well come back around for future generations.

Update, 6/2/25, 11:52 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Kelley Cole.