Hip baby boomers shun `granny' names

Houston Chronicle ^ | 3/20/04 | ELLEN WARREN

[qam1]

Hearing, "You don't look old enough to be a grandparent," is a little like being a good-looking corpse. Not the greatest compliment.

Baby boomers entering the grandparent years are launching a small semantic revolution to avoid the traditional label of senior citizen status. These youth cult boomers are demanding that their grandkids call them names with a younger sound than the traditional "grandma" and "grandpa."

"Baby boomers don't want to adhere to the blue-haired old granny stereotype. They are choosing young-sounding names for themselves because generally they don't think of themselves as grandparent age," says Norah Burch, 30, a self-described "name nerd" who has been tracking options for the new slew of first-time grandparents on her Web site, www.namenerds.com.

Burch's own mother decided that her grandchildren would call her "Moogie," the term for "mother" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

"I don't have any problem, even for one second, being a grandmother. For me it's just the name," explained Laura Burch, who became a grandmother, at age 51, to Mikala, who is now 9 (followed by Jacob, 5, and Ari, 2).

Norah Burch says her mom, a potter who lives in Ithaca, N.Y., chose the unconventional name "because she associated `grandma' and `granny' et al with bingo playing and driving a giant Oldsmobile."

"My mom and her whole circle of friends, when they started having grandkids in their 50s, the thought of being called `grandma' was pretty awful to them. They weren't gray-haired old ladies sitting around in rocking chairs baking cookies."

One correspondent on namenerds.com writes, "My mom is your typical white middle-class suburban Southern Baptist Bible-thumpin' Dubya-suppportin' Texan. She has big, puffy, shellacked blond hair and wears T-shirts with three-dimensional objects hanging off them. She believes in Jesus Christ, the Republican Party, craft fairs and spiral perms. She has rebelled against Grandma because it sounds `old' and she's only 41."

She wants her grandkids to call her "Peaches." "She's even thinking of having a peach tattooed on her toe."

[johnb838]

Do you believe anything else CNN generalizes about? Why should they be any more reliable about what people of a certain age do to try to look younger? IT's CNN for Pete's sake.... they admit they make things up.

[Ditto]

I guess I'm not hip even though I'm a very young-looking, svelte and remarkably handsome 50-something. My name has become "Pap-Pap" and I love every minute of it.

The only downside is that I'm married to some woman named Nana. ;~))

[FourPeas]

What is wrong with these people?

I eagerly look forward to the day when I hear the first "grandma" voiced in my direction. I'll be in my mid-50's (at least) by the time it happens, still just the thought of it excites me. Both my boys already know how much I'll love seeing their children.

[HungarianGypsy]

Least my mother-in-law has gotten used to being a grandma. She goes by "gramma". It's gotten to the point that first-time grandparents who look old, look odd now-a-days.

[johnb838]

I call my Aunt 'Granny' and 'Grandma' all the time. Why not? The kids all call her that, and she's such a nice and spry and sometimes mean ol' Grandma that I get a kick out of it. I can't call her 'Auntie' can I?

[cyborg]

My mom is startin to wonder when I'm going to get married and give her grandchildren :-)

[cupcakes]

YAWN...I forgot, boomers do no wrong. There are no selfish boomers(or even a trend in that generation towards being at the least incredibly self-centered). Boomers only have their children and grandchildren's best interest at heart. Blah, blah, blah. We are so noble, blah blah and you xers just hate us all, blah blah...
Let's face it, either xers are extremely ungrateful towards their parents or there is something there to the trend among boomers to be self-centered and not worthy of admiration. I see which side you lean and that's ok, I bet most boomers feel the way you do. I know I did not feel the same way about my "greatest generation" grandparents, nor did, I bet, many xers here so I don't think it is a matter of us being ungrateful to previous generation. I adored my grandparents, they were salt of the earth and people I admired. And what you fail to recognize is that many of us desperately wish we could say the same of our parents. It is pretty lonely out here without their guidance, love, and whatever else a parent/grandparent brings to their children/grandchildren. I would love to be having a different conversation then the ones we have on this thread, believe me I would. What I wouldn't do to say your generation is the greatest.

[HungarianGypsy]

My aunt who is in her 80's and was told by her doctor that she needed to start using a cane... She told him in a very loud voice (I was in the lobby) in no uncertain terms that only "OLD PEOPLE" used canes and she was not old. LOL
Sounds like my grand-grandma. My grand-aunt put her in a nursing home when she was in her ninties. She used to push the other residents around in their wheelchairs, because she felt sorry for them, since they were so old. Most of them were probably 60s or 70s.

[goodnesswins]

Just like all Gen-X'rs are NOT the same....all BOOMERS are NOT the same....remember that. Your mother is an anomaly.

[wtc911]

Posts 111 & 63....a couple of these folks bitching about how uninvolved their moms are/were. Please save it for the therapist's couch.

And, btw...your parents owe you or your children absolutely nothing. Anything parents do for grown children or grand children is up to them. I raise my rather large family one way by my own choice, the guy around the corner does it his way, by his own choice.

[cupcakes]

Watch out, under some folks guidelines here, they might just consider that you are wishing death on them by even entertaining those questions;-)

[Ditto]

Having gray hairs and being a parent are directly related...

I have always held that insanity runs in families. Parents get it from their teenagers. :`))

[Behind Liberal Lines]

[Laura Burch] decided that her grandchildren would call her "Moogie," the term for "mother" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"....Burch...a potter who lives in Ithaca, N.Y., chose the unconventional name "because she associated `grandma' and `granny' et al with bingo playing and driving a giant Oldsmobile."

And, I guess, in Ithaca, grandmothers, excuse me, "moogies," should to be associated with burning American flags and driving giant VW buses.

Ithaca is the City of Evil.

[Brad’s Gramma]

How STUPID! How LAME! How IDIOTIC! How SELFISH SELFISH SELFISH! I LOVE being called Gramma.

I have a picture that a certain young man made me for Mother's Day. It's "me", dressed as Super Gramma. Indeed, I have SG on my shirt, and I've got one big ole smile on my face. I'm red, white & blue Super Gramma. Ha!

Stupid women...how this must hurt their grandchildren.

[surrey]

The grandson who calls my husband "Dude" calls me "BA" and for the life of us don't know where he came up with it.

[wtc911]

A couple of things in my first and last post to you...nothing that you attribute to me can be found in my posts (boomers can do no wrong...we are the greatest generation...we only have our children's interest at heart) I said none of this but that doesn't matter as long as you think I did.

I'm sorry your parents sucked at the job. We all know this because it's the song you sing on these threads. Get over it or get some therapy. Trashing anyone their age for you parents' faults is immature, insulting and counter productive. Call your mommy and tell her she's an assh***, maybe that will help. Don't come on here and tell me I'm one because I'm her generation.

As I said at the start this is my first and last post to you so you may rest assured that whatever you chose to say in reply will not be challenged or answered by me...have fun.

[anonymous_user]

Sure, consider it "public domain" :)

[TX Conservative]

Some of you boomer bashers need to go to the site and read some of the names and their origins. Many of the names are nationality related, some are names made up by the grandchild because they were unable to pronounce "grandma or grandpa". Very few are names that are designed to make the grandparents look young.

I am a boomer, raised in the south. We saw very few of the hippy, lefty, commie type behavior down here. Not all boomers are like the stereotype you portray. Painting us all with the same brushstroke is unfair.

[Xenalyte]

Don't these dolts know anything? The grandparental nickname is bestowed by the eldest grandchild as soon as it can talk. (Notice I did not say "talk intelligibly." That is not a requirement.)

[Frapster]

Lol - my grandmother wanted us kids to call her Grandmama. We called her grandma or grandmother.

My kids call my mom Grandmother and my father Granddad. My mother's mom is Great Grandmother or Great Grandma. They call my wife's mother Granny... what I call her depends upon who's listening. *whistles innocently*