Hip baby boomers shun `granny' names

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

[netmilsmom]

I truly thought that boomers ended with JFK. I was born 4 days after and proudly called myself a GenXer. Turns out I was born on the cusp!

[qam1]

Can someone post the year of birth span for each catagory, Boomers, Gen Xers, etc.? Seriously, I'm just wondering. Thanks!

Flappers <1912
WWII 1912-1928
Silent Generation: 1929-1945.

Baby Boomers: 1946-1964.

Though often the later Baby Boomers born 1954 to 1964 are called Generation Jones (They are the ones who brought us Disco)

Generation X: 1965 to (1975 or 1982)
I have seen Generation X start at 1961 but the overwheming age given for the start is 1965. 1965 is the year the Baby Boom ended and birth rates rapidly declined. The end year for Xers is all over the place from 1975 to 1982

Generation Y (or the Echo Boom) starts from whatever year is picked for the end of the Xers to anywhere from 1994 to the present.

[Alissa]

My first grandchild named me - I had nothing to do with it (she had a speech impediment) and now its stuck - Fifi.

[Mrs.Liberty]

My mom insisted her grandchildren call her.."Grandmother Darling".

She never knew my children, having passed away long before they were born, but when I refer to her in front of them, I call her Grandmother Darling.

[netmilsmom]

>>Though often the later Baby Boomers born 1954 to 1964 are called Generation Jones (They are the ones who brought us Disco) <<

If it's Disco, you'll have to pop it up a year or two. Most of the people born between 1954 & 1958 were listening to the Carpenters!!

I graduated in 1979. I was at a wedding with a bunch of young people who were talking about Disco like it was a good thing (!). I told them I was the Disco Queen in High School. They looked at me with great respect. I was shocked!
I proved it on the dance floor, but was taken down a few pegs when one of the ladies told me that she was born in 79.

[AZHSer]

Gen Xer here. I am 35 and have the joy of being "Grandma" to 7 grandkids. I just happened to marry someone 20 years older than I am so actually I am a step-grandma. Hubby's ex doesn't mind-- they call her Gumby.

[KangarooJacqui]

Whatever happened to Mamaw and Papaw?

Or in my part of the world, "Grandma, Grandpa, and Granddad" (or of those of certain immigrant persuasions, "Oma and Opa")?

[nopardons]

That's NOT quite right.

Flappers was one of the names given to UNMARRIED girls,who were in their late teens/20s, during the mid to late 1920s. They were also called "SHEBAS" and the guys "SHIEKS",during the craze for Rudolph Valentino's two movies," THE SHIEK" and "SON OF THE SHIEK", in the mid '20s.

That generation,usually people born in the late 1800s through the early years of 1900, were known as " THE LOST GENERATION ", because some of them were aimless, after returning from WW I;but not everyone was included in that name and it was F.Scot Fitzgerald who dubbed his pals with that nickname.

Those bought during 1941 -1946 are known as WAR BABIES. They aren't a part of the BOOMERS and were over shadowed and engulfed by them.

The SILENT GENERATION isn't a "generation" name at all.You're thinking of THE SILENT MAJORITY, which would include many different generations.

Late 1940/early 1950s female teens were called " BOBBYSOCKSERS ", much as their mothers' equivalent were called FLAPPERS. Neither of these names refer to an entire generation.

In England, in the 1920s-30s,20somethings, of the highest class, were called "BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS".

Giving a generation a name, is a new phenomena. The BOOMERS were really the FIRST .

[NYC GOP Chick]

When the Gen-Xers start becoming grandparents, let's see if they want to be called "Granny" or "Pops" or "Old-Timer" or such.

My grandfather thought it was amusing when I used to call him "Old Timer." Actually, when I was about 9 or 10, I decided that I'd known the adults in my family long enough to call them by their first names. My mother was annoyed, my father didn't care, my grandmothers were shocked and my grandfather thought it was the funniest thing. :)

[GraniteStateConservative]

Yeah, we all know Condi is a dime a dozen.

[/sarcasm]

How many Condis are there in the boomer haystack?

[Elliott]

I have 10 grandchildren...love them to death!!! Teaching them all to be little conservatives when they grow up....they just love our president, GEORGE BUSH...

They call me MiMi...their greatgrandparents are Grandma and Grandpa. My mom is almost 90....loves to be called MeMa...an Indian name for grandma....so GET OVER IT!!!

[NYC GOP Chick]

As soon as I saw this thread, I thought of you -- and your screen name (of course!). ;D

[Blood of Tyrants]

So she will recognize her grandchildren the instant they get to heaven with her, of course.

[CARDINALRULES]

Hmmm...does this remind you of someone? LOL!

[qam1]

This is from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Generation

Progressive Generation 1843 to 1859.
Missionary Generation 1860 to 1882
Lost Generation 1883 - 1900
G.I. Generation 1901 to 1924.
Silent Generation 1925 to 1942
Baby Boomers 1946 to 1964
Generation X 1965 - 1981
Generation Y 1982 - 1996

I guess the 1943 - 1945 gap could be called the war babies though I would put them in with the Silents.

[WASH]

How many Condis are there in the boomer haystack?

At least one more than there is in the Xers.

[nopardons]

They have ALWAYS been called "WAR BABIES";when anyone paid attention to them. :-)

Strange list, which has NOTHING at all to do with what they were actually called at the time.This is revisionistic "history", made up recently.

[LisaMalia]

Thanks, that's very interesting information. And what's strange is that my two children are from two different "generations", X and Y. (1979 and 1982).

Now for the difficult part. Find overall descriptions for each one.....:)

[qam1]

Strange list, which has NOTHING at all to do with what they were actually called at the time.This is revisionistic "history", made up recently.

I wouldn't call 1951 recently, From the link

"The name Silent Generation was coined in the November 5, 1951 cover story of Time to refer to the generation coming of age at the time".

I would question the start time of 1925 though, Someone born in 1925 would have been 18 in 1943 in which they could and would have fought in WWII.

[nopardons]

Many 18 year olds and younger, fought WW II,which lasted 3 years after 1943.

TIME may have coined that term, in 1951, but it never stuck, no one else ever used it.And, no one called the earlier generations " PROGRESSIVE " or " MISSIONARY " at those times.

Being a WAR BABY, with a far better than average memory,who knew her grandparents and great grandmother, I can tell you from first hand knowledge, that this list is mostly garbage and historical revisionism.

Just because something is on the net, doesn't mean that it factual or true. :-)