The Baby Name Wizard

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Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name Jennifer!

Comments and insights on the name Jennifer: | Edit

When you are a 'Jennifer' you will always be known by your first and last name, never just 'Jennifer'.

This isn't so true anymore, maybe if you were growing up ten or twenty years ago.

My father claims that just before I was born (NYC, 1968), there was a television commercial for Reingold beer that showed a young couple rowing in Central Park, drinking a Rheingold and trying to come up with a name for their new baby. The name they agree upon is Jennifer. My father believes this is the reason for the sudden spike in baby girls named "Jennifer" in the New York area in 1968. Has anyone else heard this story?

I was born in May of 1973, my mother told me that the movie "Love Story" with Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal had come out in Dec 1970 - and that is why so many girls of that era are named Jennifer. Pretty popular, tissue box movie...women loved it. - Jennifer C

My mother got my name from "Love Story" too! - Jennifer H

There was also a popular song by Donovan, "Jennifer Juniper", which came out in 1967, not too long before "Love Story".

I was born in 1972. My parents thought that I was going to be a boy so did not have a girl's name picked out. A day or so after I was born my dad saw a Gerber commercial with a little girl named Jenny Rebecca, so I was named Jennifer Rebecca. I have always known lots of other Jennifers around my age.

Personal experiences with the name Jennifer: | Edit

When I went to the public library growing up, if I forgot my card, I could tell the librarian that I was the seventh Jennifer on their computer screen with my last name.

Every Jennifer I met growing up was nasty, so it really put me off the name. (Sorry to all you nice ones out there!)

I've met only one nasty Jennifer, and I've met plenty of Jennifers!

In my grade school class of 24 kids, 5 were named Jennifer. For our kids, it will probably be a name that sounds like someone's mom.

I was born in 1964 and was named Jennifer. My mother loved the name but my father hated it and never called me by my name. All through school (elementary and high school) there were always a lot of Jennifers in my classes. Even after going out into the working world, there has always been AT LEAST one other Jennifer in my office. One office I worked in there were three of us so we had to go by Jenny, Jen and Jenn. When I had my daughter I named her Alexandra since we loved the name and didn't hear it too often. There has hardly been any other Alexandras in her schools but there have been several Alexanders.

Nicknames for Jennifer: | Edit

Jen, Jenny, Jenna, Jennie, Jenn, Yen Yen, Jen-nay, J-Lo, Jenni, Gigi

Meanings and history of the name Jennifer: | Edit

Jennifer joined the USA top 1000 names in 1938. It rose until in 1970 it was the #1 name in USA, it held that place until 1985 and has been in decline ever since. In 2006 it was the 51st most popular name in America.

White; fair-skinned; smooth (Cornish, Welsh).

Famous real-life people named Jennifer: | Edit

Jennifer Aniston, actress
Jennifer Lopez, entertainer
Jennifer Jason Leigh, actress
Jennifer Garner, actress
Jennifer Hudson, singer, Oscar-winning actress and ex-American Idol contestant
Jennifer Jones, Oscar-winning actress of classic Hollywood (Jennifer Jones was her stage name)
Jennifer Connelly, actress
Jennifer Holliday, singer, actress
Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress
Ginnifer Goodwin, actress, co-star of "Big Love"
Jennifer O'Neill, actress, "Summer of '42"
Jennifer Ehle, actress, "Pride & Prejudice" mini-series (Lizzie Bennett)
Jennifer Duggar, one of the children on the TV series "18 Kids and Counting"

Jennifer in song, story & screen: | Edit

Jennifer Cavilleri, female lead role in "Love Story"
Jenny from Forrest Gump
"Jenny Rebecca" -song covered by Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton-John and others
Jennifer Joy (and Zachary Zugg), song from Free to Be You and Me
867-5309 (Jenny) -- Tommy Tutone's Catchy 1980s hit song
"Jennifer Juniper" - Donovan 1968
"Jennifer Eccles" -- The Holllies (released about the same time as Donovan's hit in '68 but less well known)
"Waltz for Jennifer" -- FFH (CCM group)2003
"Jenny from the Block" J-Lo
"27 Jennifers" - Mike Doughty (song begins: "I went to school with 27 Jennifers"
"Portrait of Jennie" 1948 tearjerker/fantasy with Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten
"Jennifer's Rabbit" -- Tom Paxton