I was born on September 5, 1977. My parents named me Jenny Michelle. My dad liked the “Michelle” part, my mom liked the “Jenny” part, and, apparently, so did the rest of America. Except the rest of America preferred to name their daughters “Jennifer” and call them “Jenny.” I was not so lucky. For most of my life I have wished the presumed “ifer” was part of my name, just because it would make it easier. But, oh well, it could be worse.
So I entered school in the early eighties with many Jennys. I graduated high school with a few, and joined legions at college. As a matter of fact, in my freshman “suite” (which is a fancy name for two cinder-block-walled bedrooms and a one-holer bathroom), there were three of us. Three out of four. The other girl’s name was Arlyce. Lucky!
Now I am in my 30s, and like most of the other Jennys (though many of us have taken to deleting the -ny, I have stubbornly kept mine) I am a wife and a mother.
And, like myriad Jen(ny)s on the interwebz, I am also a blogger. With a unique voice, if not a unique name. I’m Just Another Jenny. But also, I’m really not. And as thousands of Jennys come of age, what I hope for us is that we all find our voices, speak the truth, and mother our children in positive ways that are anything but ordinary.
Very well written post.
Cheers from a Jenny who dropped just the Y.
Could be worse- you could have been an Emily. 😉
We’re approximately the same age and I also grew up surrounded by Jennifers (and, of course, other Emilys). I can’t believe they assigned 3 Jennifers to the same dorm “suite.” That’s pretty funny.
Of course, I went and named my daughter Olivia- which is also a top 5 name. In my defense, I didn’t know that when I picked out the name.
Growing up, I wished for a normal name. I was always so sick and tired of people asking how my parents picked out my name. Teamed with my maiden name (Shute, pronounced shoot), I heard “Oh Shute, the Sky is falling (oh har-dee-har-har) so many times I’ve lost count.
I’ve come to appreciate my name…after all these years. That said, there was no way I’d ever consider doing that to my kids.
the suite next to me in college had ‘blonde-haired jen’ ‘dark-haired jen’ and ‘red-haired jen.’ everyone still calls them that on facebook 😉
Amen!! Love this post! My mum named me Jenny because she didn’t want to nickname me Jenny from Jennifer. So now I’m Jen. HA! Passing this post on to other Jenny’s….
We went for uncommon, but not odd. Donovan’s college roommate is name Donovan. Go figure.
To me, you’ll always be a Jenequita.
UP
I’m a Jennifer that goes by Jeni. It was so bad in high school & college that I wouldn’t even turn around if someone said, “Hey, Jenny!” unless I recognized the voice – because most likely, they were calling for one of the other five Jennies in a 5-foot radius.
Jennifer was the most popular name for girls in 1972. Lucky me 🙂
At least we never had to worry about folks mispronouncing it!
I like how your mouth is open in that pic and I don’t think it has closed since :-)! I love trying to explain to Evan, no we are not seeing Jenny today, we are seeing Jen and tomorrow we are meeting Jeni : ). Yep love the 70s. How many Jeremys did I know growing up too? My parents were ahead of the game. Now there are Courtney’s all over the place! But at least growing up, I was the only one I knew!
Love this! Obviously, I relate!
My sorority pledge class had 6 Jen/Jenny/Jennifers. I’d grown up being called “Jenny” and had looked forward to college when I could finally start being called “Jennifer.” It didn’t work out that way, I was outnumbered.
It’s only been in the past 5 years that I was able to make the transition to Jennifer.
Another Jen checking in–Jennifer Lynn, born in July 1977!
I was given Jennifer, called Jenny all growing up (and still am by many family members), tried to make it interesting by spelling it Jennie in junior high, gave it up and went for Jen in college, and now use Jennifer professionally because apparently when you say “Jen Young” too fast on the phone it sounds like Danielle.
The funny thing too is that I married a Jason–in the top two for years around that time. There is actually a baby name book called “Beyond Jennifer and Jason” that I saw when we were naming our son. LOL
I love that you are Jenny. I love that you are my Jenny. I love that John is John and was not meant to be Jenny, and that you helped bring him into my life.
I do have a peeve though. If I have known someone years and years as one name and then they decide they want to be called by another version of their name it is near impossible to change. One Jennifer in my life (whom I also love) was Jenny in our teens and then moved away and switched to Jennifer. She mentions every time we are together that we are the only people who still call her Jenny. She’ll always be Jenny to me. I just can’t think of her as Jennifer.
Funny you should post this! My name was VERY unique growing up and I hated it! I couldn’t find my name anywhere, ya know when you go on vacation and want to purchase a magnet, nope, not for me! If you did find it, it was spelled with 2 N’s. I have now grown into my name and I have met several people with my name, although not pronounced the same. My middle name is the same on being spelled differently…to pronounce it properly it would be Jana Lyne (Jan with an A and Lyn with a silent E) for people that don’t pronounce it properly Jane with an A and Line..so I like my name….NOW! I guess that is what makes us unique in our own little way! 🙂
I was almost a Jennifer. My dad really like the name a lot. My mom did, too. But obviously, they changed their minds. I never could find my name on anything either and didn’t like it growing up. Now, I do and have only met a handful of Gwen’s in my life.
I’m a Jennifer. It sucks. Jennifer was the most popular name of the whole DECADE. Can you believe that? And my mom says she named me that because she thought it was “original”. Of course I was born in ’71 so it probably still was at that time.
Yet another Jen. Jennifer Lynn – I feel like tons of Jennifers are Lynns… I’ve gone by Jenni my whole life. My parents debated on how to spell Jenni when I was little. I even had a shirt with Jennie on it from in the middle of the spelling debate. They apparently decided on Jenni because it was easy for me to just drop the fer. No matter how hard they tried to simplify it, I’ve resolved to accepting Jenny as well since that’s what people assume most of the time…
Love it! your photo really makes me want to try for a ! (i’m a mom w 3 boys)
also noticed that tough hard, coreness in this post : ) Lovin it! so, bob calls me penny, which is what i wished was my name. my grandma always calls me jenny, and everyone else calls me jen. i think it was popular because of that “Love Story” movie??? i’ll tell u a secret, i named ethan after ethan hawke : )
I use all 3 – Jen, Jenny, Jennifer – but no matter what I call myself, I always have to add a qualifier (I’m even “@ negative lane” in my virtual life), because as I said on twitter the other day, “Jennifer” is a cast of thousands!
Like so many others, when I named my kids, I kept in mind what the popular trending names were and avoided them, because we “Jens” know what it’s like to carry “the most popular name, 1970-1984.”
See, I’m a Jennifer whose mom named her this in order to call her Jenny…I’ve been a Jenny all of my life,and now I’m just Jen…though the NY sneaks out in weird places, like when I’m asked my name in Starbucks, and I say Jenny…only to kind of cringe at myself and envision that I’m standing in line in stirrup leggings and L.A. Gears.