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NAME: Jennifer

ETYMOLOGY: Welsh Female: Fair one. Variant of Guinevere. In Arthurian Mythology Guinevere was Arthur's queen. English Female: Fair one. Variant of Guinevere. In Arthurian Mythology Guinevere was Arthur's queen. Cornish Female: Fair and yielding. Variant of Guinevere.
Celtic Female: White wave. Arthurian Legend Female Variant of Guinevere: Fair one. Guinevere was King Arthur's mythological queen.

ORIGIN & HISTORY: The name Jennifer is a Cornish variant of Guinevere, deriving ultimately from Proto-Celtic "white ghost"(Welsh gwen-hwyfar, Irish Find-abair). The name is also sometimes derived from the Old English words jenefer, genefer and jinifer, which were all variants of Juniper. The names were used to describe the juniper tree.

POPULARITY: Before 1906 the name was uncommon, but it became popular after George Bernard Shaw used it for the main female character in The Doctor's Dilemma. It gained even more popularity in the 1970s. Though its popularity is often attributed to the novel and film Love Story, Jennifer was already the number 3 name given to baby girls in the United States in 1969, before the book and movie were released. Jennifer was the most popular name for American females from 1970 to 1984. Since the early 1990s the name has remained common, but nowhere near as popular as it once was.

FASCINATING FACTS: The name has become less and less popular since the early 1990s. Below are popularity rankings of the name from 1992 to 2006:

2006 51
2005 42
2004 38
2003 31
2002 28
2001 26
2000 26
1999 21
1998 20
1997 18
1996 19
1995 18
1994 17
1993 15
1992 11

As you can see the name has been decreasing in popularity for the past 14 years. The lower the ranking number the more popular the name. Jennifer is the 34th most popular name this decade out of a 1000 ranked names. So overall, Jennifer still remains a very popular name.

NAMESAKES: Jennifer (1978 film), horror film directed by Brice Mack; Jennifer Government, 2003 novel by Max Barry; The Jennifers, British band, some of whose members later formed Supergrass; "Jennifer", a song by Styx from Crystal Ball; "Jennifer", a song by M2M from The Big Room; Project Jennifer, 1974 CIA attempt to recover a Russian submarine; Hurricane Jennifer; Tropical Storm Jennifer.

FAMOUS PERSONS: Jennifer Aniston (actress) DOB: February 11th 1969; Jennifer Love Hewitt (actress/singer) DOB: February 21st 1979; Jennifer Connelly (actress) DOB: December 12th 1970; Jennifer Capriati (tennis player) DOB: March 29th 1976; Jennifer Lopez (actress/singer)DOB: July 24th 1969.

NAME VARIANTS: Variants include Jen (Jenn), Jenny (Jennie, Jenni), Jenna, Jenefer, Genefer, and Jinifer.

SOURCES: www.wikipedia.com
www.paulsadowski.com
www.ssa.gov
www.imdb.com

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