The emails about what to name your child are great. The emails telling me what you did name your child are even better, and yes, I promise there’s a thick update of those coming sometime soon.

But the stuff in the middle, the stuff I couldn’t predict, is great too, and I’m looking forward to interspersing some of it more regularly. Today I’m travelling, and given that when you move from one place to another you kind of change your perspective, I thought I’d give you some other people’s.

Remember a few weeks ago, when I said Lindas between 25-45 are almost non-existent? I may have overstated the case slightly, because the other night there was a beautiful young checker at Shoppers Drug Mart whose nametag said Linda, and who was kind of chuffed that I noticed it.

Turns out that I was both right and wrong about Linda, because while it comes up, it doesn’t necessarily come up ‘straight’. Here are some of your letters:

Hey Duana. In response to your question about Linda - one of my best friends is named Linda and has struggled with it her whole life. She hates it. She has spent phases of her life asking to be called different things: Lin, Lolo, LC, Linny...  It has not been something she's embraced.

And:

Hi Duana,
I'm writing as per your request to hear from Linda's between the ages of 25-45 (I'm 44). Full disclosure though, I just go by my middle name which is Suzanne (another oldie).

The use of my middle name often confuses people, but it has been intentional from the start. My parents wanted my primary name to be Suzanne but felt that putting Linda in first place flowed better. So technically, I'm not a full-on Linda. However, I do work with a bonafide Linda who is my age (or maybe a little younger).

This letter also included the awesome line:

One of my co-workers just had boy and she named him Scott! I feel like it's been out of rotation for so long, it almost sounds exotic.

And:

My name is not Linda, but it's my beloved Oma's name so I always notice when other people have it...I am 31 and I know at least three Lindas in the 25-35 age range.

(Also my Oma's full name is Sieglinde but she Canadian-ized it when she immigrated to Canada. I love the German version so much better!)

And, in case you were a Linda and feeling a little nonplussed with these updates:

Hi Duana,

I am a 31 year old Linda and I was thrilled to actually see my name mentioned! I am also obsessed with names and always feel left out of the discussion. It is definitely of another time. I have only met two other Lindas my age my entire life. Otherwise, it is definitely a name for the fifty and over crowd. It has helped me though because I have met many cranky and elderly Lindas at various jobs who were always nice to me because we had the same name!

Love the column, keep up the great work!

I loved this so much. These little tiny dips into excavated names of a different time. Let’s try it one more time. I was talking about how the ‘een’ names—Maureen, Doreen, Eileen, etc—are completely and totally linked to 1950.

So if you’re….you know what, let’s not even name an age. If you think of yourself as young or young-ish, and your name ends with an ‘een (Noreen, Aideen, etc), hit me up. How do you feel about it, and has it affected you in any particular way?

Let me know!