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aimee1899
member
Name Nerd History: Jennifer
aimee1899
member
in Baby Names
This is today's Nameberry Blog called The Jennifer Juggernaut, the impact one name had on almost an entire generation. Enjoy!
Yes, there are baby names that have had longer runs at the top of the popularity list. Mary and John, certainly, and, more recently, Michael, who ruled for 44 years, yet none of them came to be seen as an epidemic or to signify a whole generation in the way that Jennifer did, though she was Number 1 for a mere fifteen years.
But in that time, between 1970 and 1984, there were 859,112 little Jennifers born in the US?enough for online Jennifer identity-loss support groups to spring up as they matured, enough for future parents to bemoan ?I don?t want my child to be one of five named Jennifer in her class,? and enough for us to call our first book Beyond Jennifer and Jason. Jennifer became a one-girl baby names trend.
But why Jennifer? A once obscure Cornish form of the old Welsh Gwenhwyfar, aka Guinevere, a name that was hardly heard here before 1938?except for an appearance in a 1905 Shaw play? and which didn?t enter the Top 100 till 1956.
The first influential event was producer David O. Selznick?s rechristening of his young protegee Phylis Lee Isley as Jennifer Jones in 1941, stating in one of his famous memos, ?I don?t want anything too fancy, and I would like to get at least a first name that isn?t also carried by a dozen other girls in Hollywood.? Ha!
The newly named Jennifer Jones hit it big in her very first film, the 1943 The Song of Bernadette, for which she won the 1944 Best Actress Oscar, and the impact on the name was immediate. In 1942, Jennifer was Number 527, in 1943, Number 397, the next year, 262, and by 1945, 200, after which it continued a gradual climb. Parents embraced it as something fresh and new, more feminine and delicate than the long-running Mary, more solid, romantic and rhythmic than immediate predecessor Lisa. And nobody had a grandma named Jennifer.
But what brought Jennifer to Number 1? Much credit for this goes to Hollywood again, via a bestselling novel. Mass audiences were sobbing to the tragic tale of Jennifer Cavilleri and Oliver Barrett IV in first the Erich Segal novel and then the Ali McGraw-Ryan O?Neal film of Love Story, released in 1970, the year?yes?that Jennifer hit Number One on the Social Security list.
At this point in time we see successful grown-up survivors of that epidemic headlining everywhere?Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Capriati, and current Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, born at the tail end of the meteor, in 1990.
We?ve also seen the influence of Jennifer in her nicknames and short forms?the long-used Jenny reached Number 108 in 1977, and the more recently coined Jenna hit Number 50 in 1985, the very year that Jennifer left the top spot. Parents tiring of the ubiquity of Jennifer also moved on to the similar but different Jessica, and in that same year, 1985, she took over the lead, holding it for nine non-consecutive years. But Jessica, having a longer history, with Old Testament and Shakespearean cred, never had the trendy feel of her predecessor, and nor did Emily, who followed in 1996. Some parents now are moving on?or back?to Genevieve, Jen morphing into Gen.
But the fact of the matter is, we may never see a phenomenon like Jennifer again.
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Re: Name Nerd History: Jennifer
As a product of the Jennifer generation (or Jeneration???) I find this very interesting.
I am not a Jennifer myself, but I do have a name that was also pretty popular during that time period so I can somewhat relate.
Thanks for sharing!
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Wow! I am boggled.
I have 3 Jennifers in my department at work (out of 31 people) and two girlfriends named Jennifer. All of the ladies mentioned are in my peer group- late 20s- late 30s.
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Jennifer in the house! {what, what}
I didn't even respond when people called my name in school, or I'd say "Jenn, me?" So sad.
Very interesting article, thanks for sharing!
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Interesting read! They might not have had grandmother's named Jennifer, but Jennie did rank pretty high even starting in 1880. I actually have a friend named Jennie and at first I was thinking it was a unique spelling of Jenny (because she seemed embarrased by it) but then I ran across the name Jennie as an older name somewhere and looked it up and was surprised to see it was much more common than Jenny for a long time. Turns out she's named after her great grandmother.
I have more questions after reading this article, however. What sort of societal change occurred to compel so many people to desire a non-traditional name. After awhile they had to notice that the name was very popular and was being shared by so many other Jennifer's so it wasn't "different." It was just as popular as Mary (relatively speaking) so it's not that they wanted a name they hadn't heard before or was unique. They wanted a name that was not from their parents or grandparents generations. And now, the post-Jennifer generation IS wanting names that are "different" and "unique." Because of having to share their name with so many others, though that didn't seem to bother anyone for hundreds and hundreds of years. Also, what comes next? What will our children think? I hope they will find this search for uniqueness and identity based off your name, and not your personality or experiences, to be silly and will want to revert to established names instead of adding a new constant to legitimate names to give us the rhyming Braden, Hayden, Caden, Zaden etc. trend. I hope they realize a name is more than a unique sound and compilation of letters. But I just don't know...
Very interesting--thanks for sharing.
In doing a quick search of my FB friends, I have 9 friends who fall under the Jennifer/Jen/Jenna category (I, along with most of these friends, was born in the early 1980s). My elderly great aunt is also named Genevieve.
Yeah. I don't recall knowing a single Jennifer in school. I was born in 1982, and I know there wasn't a single Jennifer in my graduating class. I don't know any adult Jennifers either.
As a Jennifer, I find this very interesting. Thanks for sharing! I am showing it to my parents now! I always tease them for being so trendy but they claim to have not known any at all, which I guess cold be true in 1983 but still hard to believe.
I am truly shocked that someone could say they don't know a single Jennifer now. That seems impossible if you know more than 10 people! Lol!
For the record I have pretty much always disliked my name because there were literally 5 in most group settings I was in. Even now there are at least 3 around no matter where I am!
A few examples: The other day at the library I found a wallet on the ground, it was one that had the drivers license in a clear pocket on the outside. The name on the drivers license was Jennifer Lyn, my same name! When I was in college I worked in the Student Life office for a while, one of my jobs was to purge old files. There were more Jennifers than any other name and several had Lyn as a middle name too.
Interesting that Jennifer was #1 in 1970 -- that's the year I was born and I knew many Jennifers.
Also that Lisa was the prior #1. My parents considered that name for me, but changed their mind after seeing a movie called "David and Lisa."
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I was born in 1972 and I was specifically named Jennifer after the movie Love Story. I went to a private school...only 10 girls in my class...4 of us were Jennifer. I hated having such a popular name.
Funny thing is when I was in Europe a woman thought my name was exotic, like Jennifer Lopez, haha.
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That's so interesting.
Looking back at the trends, it looks like Jennifer was #1 the year I was born, but I feel like I knew more Heathers in school. (In middle school, I hung with a clique that had three Heathers and two Amys. I was the only one who didn't have an 80s name.)
I actually like that there's maybe a little more diversity in naming these days. I think a lot of it has to do with the fragmentation of culture that's come with the internet, cable and other trends that push people toward niches, but maybe also a more relaxed, less conformist culture than what our parents grew up in. Don't get me wrong...I'm not sanctioning naming your baby Neveah or Unique, but I like that so many people are choosing names with personal significance to them.