Parenting

30 Old Time 'Grandma' Names That Are Making a Comeback

ParentingPublished Jul 15, 2013
By Kiri Blakeley
baby old fashioned cribiStock.com/LindaYolanda

Grandma names are hot right now. You know those names. You hear 'em and a vision of a portly woman with a mop of gray hair piled atop her head comes into your mind's eye. She's probably wearing an apron and wielding a wooden spoon. Call it nostalgia. Call it a backlash to oddball celebrity names like Apple and North. Call it a yearning for a simpler time and a more ample bosom. But the days when grandma's name might have been the middle name, behind a nice modern name like Brittany or Kaylee, are waning. Now grandma's name is at the forefront.

I took a poll of friends' grandmothers' names and also looked up the most popular names from the 1800s and early 1900s in the Social Security Administration name database. So these are not only all real names -- but they were once popular ones. I left out old-fashioned names like Ruby and Emma that are overly used again. Would you dare give your kid any of these 30 old-fashioned grandma names now?

1. Gertrude

2. Esther

3. Lottie

4. Nannie (although this was my grandmother's nickname, I was surprised this was actually one of the most popular given first names at the turn of the century)

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5. Beulah

6. Flossie

7. Gladys

8. Mildred

9. Mamie

10. Myrtle

11. Bertha

12. Dixie

13. Trixie

14. Kitty

15. Winifred

16. Edith

17. Erma (Irma)

18. Betty

19. Ruth

20. Minnie

21. Ethel

22. Hattie

23. Fannie

24. Nettie

25. Agnes

26. Eula

27. Goldie

28. Delia

29. Everly

30. Bessie

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