Would you name your kid after their grandparent?
It seems traditional Irish ‘Grandparent names’ could become extinct in the not too distant future according to a survey of parents.
Ahead of Grandparent’s Day on 6 October, My Nametags conducted a survey in September 2021, which found that a significant portion of parents are moving away from more traditional baby names for their kids.
80% of parents surveyed said that their parent’s opinion didn’t matter when it came to selecting a baby name.
Meanwhile, 64% of those surveyed said that they felt it wasn’t important to keep a name alive by passing it onto their children.
75% of respondents also felt that there is a definite shift away from more traditional names and when asked what names they considered the most traditional the findings were as follows:
Female names:
- Mary (87%)
- Brigid (53%)
- Maureen (51%)
- Joan (30%)
- Dolores (21%)
Male names:
- John (75%)
- Michael (58%)
- Patrick (55%)
- Seamus (35%)
- Peadar (23%)
However, while there may be a shift in terms of first names, the survey also revealed that 71% of parents still choose their parents or grandparent’s name as a second name for their child.
So while it would appear that we could soon find names such as Mary, Brigid, John and Michael being used less and less, they will still be a common middle name for the foreseeable anyways.
“We love discovering what people’s thoughts are on names and especially the move from traditional to more modern names that we have seen more and more in recent years,” Lars B. Andersen, Founder of My Nametags said on Thursday.
“While traditional grandparent names may not be selected for first names for children so much anymore it is great to see that they are not being completely forgotten,” B. Anderson added.
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