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Celebrate Your Name Week: Jennifer
March 6-12 is Celebrate Your Name Week. I told you about how Muppet got his name and how Adaline got her name and why I spell it wrong.
You can read about my birth story and how/why my mom named me here.
Hi, my name is Jenn (“Hi Jenn”). Of course my given name is Jennifer. I went by Jenny from birth until high school. Since my close family called me Jenny I suddenly became uncomfortable with anyone that I wasn’t close with calling me Jenny. In the 10th grade I switched over to Jenn, with two n’s. Please don’t forget the second n. An easy way to remember is “Two n’s means more of Jenn!” (and come on, who doesn’t want that?!). I never go by Jennifer, but often introduce myself as such since apparently people can’t hear and want to call me “Jean” or “Jan” (and believe me, I speak clearly). I’m certain to let people know to call me Jenn as I don’t like being called Jennifer. I think my middle name is pretty sweet so you’ll have to go here to read about it.
If you didn’t know it already Jennifer was/is a really popular name. There are a lot of us named Jennifer in the 25-40 year old age range. There certainly wasn’t anything exciting about growing up with the name Jennifer in the 80s, but at least you could be sure to find my name on a mug, key chain, or notepad. This is riveting information here, people. And it gets more exciting, let’s talk about the meaning of my name.
Ok, so loosely translated Jennifer basically means “hey white girl!”. Oh, yes. The meaning of the name differs slightly from one website to another but the two meanings that I found the most were “fair” and “white wave”. Fair and white are just nice ways of saying pale and pasty 😉
After reading my Celebrate Your Name Week posts on Facebook my good friend, Kelly, let me know that her first and middle names combined mean “Warrior of Light”. Um, well, that’s awesome. My name meaning stinks 😦 I already knew about “fair” and “white wave” so I figured I do a little more research to see if I could find a meaning I liked better 😉
*Fair lady
*White wave, White skin, White shoulders
(Now we’re getting very descriptive about the paleness!)
*One who is fair and beautiful
(Why, thank you 🙂 )
*Fair and Smooth, White Waves White; fair; smooth
(Jennifer…Now available in “smooth” too!)
*White, Fair and Smooth, Soft
(…and soft!)
*White, fair, blessed, holy, smooth
(Blessed and holy are nice!)
*Pure and yielding, whitewave
(Pure and yielding aren’t bad 😉 )
*Fair spirit
(Ooo, spirit)
*White Shadow, White Wave
(Shadow is cool!)
*Fair Phantom or White Wave
(Fair Phantom is sweet!)
*The White Fay, White Ghost, White Phantom, or White Fairy
(Now we’re talking…I sound awesome!)
While these meanings don’t differ that much (and certainly keep with the “white” theme) I definitely like the references to spirit, shadow, ghost, phantom, and fairy! It sounds so mysterious and a little creepy and also fantastical and dreamy. Me likey. Sure, it’s still not as hardcore as being a warrior of light, but at least it’s a little more interesting than “Hey, you need some sun!”. I’ve actually always liked the meaning “White Wave” as I thought it sounded like a Native American name.
A little more about the name Jennifer:
Jennifer is of Welsh origin from Gwenhwyfar, which also can mean “white waves” (source). The name Jennifer is a Cornish variation of Welsh GUINEVERE. There were close to 800,000 Jennifers born in the seventies, making Jennifer the top name of the decade (source).
Jenny was in existence at least as early as 1602 when William Shakespeare punned it with ‘genitive’ in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Jennifer developed in Cornwall, an area of England with strong Celtic connections, including many claims to Arthurian legend, as a separate development from Gwenhwyvar. The name only became fashionable in the rest of England and the world in the last hundred years, perhaps following the increased popular, artistic and literary interest in the Arthurian legend during the Victorian period when the British Empire was at its height (source).
The name (Jennifer) has been in use since the 18th century. Before 1906 the name was fairly 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, the year before the book and movie were released (source).
According to the Social Security Administration Jennifer was one of the Top 10 baby names for 25 years straight (1966-1991) and was the #1 baby name for 15 years straight from 1970-1985 (source You will have to search “Jennifer” or a specific year as this is not a direct link.).
Jennifer is starting to decline in popularity and recently fell out of the Top 100 baby names for girls. So while the senior set will be crawling with Jennifers 30 years from now, it’s unlikely that my daughter will have many friends by that name.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
A Shadowy Wave of Phantom Paleness (otherwise know as Jenn)
What does your name mean?
Tell me in the comment section!
Other “Celebrate Your Name Week” Posts:
+How Muppet got his name
+How Adaline got her name
+The meaning of Adaline’s name and why I spell it wrong
Celebrate Your Name Week: Jordan
March 6-12 is Celebrate Your Name Week! I figured I’d celebrate by discussing the names of our cast of characters here at Coolest Family on the Block. I told you about how Muppet got his name and how Adaline got her name and why I spell it wrong, and why Cool Daddy’s name is a secret
After almost 5 years of unexplained infertility we got pregnant. Just before 12 weeks I lost the baby. Three months later I got pregnant with Adaline. On the first baby’s due date, 03/14/2009, we “officially” named the baby Jordan Shiloh. (Coincidentally Jordan’s due date fell 2 days after I had my 20 week ultrasound with Adaline and discovered for certain that she was a girl.).
Shortly after finding out we were pregnant with Jordan, Cool Daddy and I were taking a walk and I said, “I’d like us to give the baby a nickname that we can call it until we find out whether it’s a girl or a boy. Any suggestions?” Right away he answered, “Biddle.” and I thought it was great. For the remainder of the pregnancy we called the baby Biddle. After the miscarriage we wanted to give the baby a real name, but we weren’t sure if it had been a boy or a girl. We decided to use a unisex name and Jordan and Shiloh were our favorites. I also liked that Jordan and Shiloh are Biblical place names.
Jordan is the river in the Bible where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. It was at Shiloh where Hannah prayed to God to give her a son and it was there where Samuel was later brought to live.
Jordan means “descending, flowing down” and Shiloh means “He who has been sent” and also “safe, peaceful, tranquil”. Together the name means “Descending, flowing down, He who has been sent safely, peacefully, tranquilly.” Quite honestly I didn’t even know that at the time that I picked the names. While having a name with special meaning was important to me, I just wanted to pick a unisex name that I liked the sound of and Jordan and Shiloh were my favorites. Now I think that the name is so fitting. While losing Jordan was one of the most painful experiences of my life (s)he left this world flowing down and had been sent safely, peacefully, and tranquilly to be with his/her Father in heaven.
I still often refer to the baby as “Biddle” since no one ever seems to know who I’m talking about when I say “Jordan”. I’m glad we gave our baby a name, even if we’re the only ones that remember it.
Follow the links below for more information on the names “Jordan” and “Shiloh”.
*Jordan (Male)
*Jordan (Female)
*Jordan: Meaning “descend, flow down”
*Shiloh (Male)
*Shiloh (Female)
*Shiloh: Meaning “peaceful, tranquil”
*Shiloh: Meaning “He who has been sent”
*Shiloh: Meaning “His gift”
Other “Celebrate Your Name Week” Posts:
+How Muppet got his name
+How Adaline got her name
+The meaning of Adaline’s name and why I spell it wrong
+Why Cool Daddy’s Name is a Secret
+The meaning of the name Jennifer: My name 🙂
+Why “Coolest Family on the Block”?: How I picked the blog name
Read The Short Version of our infertility/miscarriage story, or for the whole story read:
*Part 1: Trying to Conceive: Take 1
*Part 2: My First Pregnancy
*Part 3: My Miscarriage
*Part 4: Trying to Conceive: Take 2
*Part 5: Trying to Conceive: Take 3 Secondary Infertility
*Spring Ahead: Reflections on Miscarriage
*Childless Mother: Infertility Poem
*National Infertility Awareness Week
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Celebrate Your Name Week: Adaline (Part 2)
March 6-12 is Celebrate Your Name Week! I figured I’d celebrate by discussing the names of our cast of characters here at Coolest Family on the Block. I told you about how Muppet got his name and how Adaline got her name.
Today I’d like to tell you about the meaning of Adaline’s name and why I spell it “wrong”.
Before I continue telling you about how/why Adaline got her name, I’m going to take a moment to tell you how we pronounce it. Adaline is said exactly how it is spelled Add-ah-line. It is not Ay-da nor is it linn or leen. All those versions of the name are pretty, but we use the classic pronunciation of Add-ah-line.
Okay, moving on…
I’d always wanted to give my kids Bible names. I’m not really sure why, I just liked the idea of it and the Bible contains some really beautiful timeless names (and some really weird ones too). While I was looking up Biblical names I kept seeing the name “Adah” and I thought that it was really pretty. I felt that “Adah” had the same appeal as Ava, Ella, Emma, and other two-syllable names that end with the “ah” sound. My husband didn’t like it. I think he thought it sounded like an old lady or something. I knew I probably wouldn’t just name my daughter “Adah” especially since I was still hanging on to “Hannah” at the time. When my husband brought up the name “Adeline” while looking through a baby book, not only did I find the full name beautiful but right away I thought about the nickname “Ada”.
Since the meaning of the name was something that was important to me, I began researching the name Adeline and other versions/spellings of the name. Repeatedly I found that Adeline means noble, nobility, of the noble sort, and sometimes kind. I thought that these were all great meanings, so I thought I’d dig a little deeper. I’m a bit obsessive in my researching and this was no different. I decided to research the name Ada into the depths of the internet until my search engine was screaming for mercy. I was thrilled with what I found. I loved that all of the meanings were nice and lovely and I loved that there were 13 different meanings for the name in 13 different countries! In parts of Africa the name means “firstborn daughter”, which was perfect! Many of the websites showed the pronunciation of “Ay-da” while others showed “Aa-da” and some showed both. I decided to change the spelling from Adeline to Adaline so that she would have the prefix of the name “Ada” which has so many wonderful meanings. Also then it wouldn’t be so much of a stretch to use “Ada” for a nickname.
Below is a list of the meanings and origins of the name “Ada” along with links to the sources.
ADALINE/ ADELINE
MEANINGS: Noble, Nobility
ADA
MEANINGS: Brightness, Beautiful, Adorned, Adornment, Ornament, Noble, Kind, Oldest/First Daughter, Wealthy, Prosperous, Happy, Sweet, Pleasant, Joyful
ORIGINS: Hebrew / Biblical, African, Germanic, French, Greek, Danish, American, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Teutonic, English, Hawaiian
+Hebrew / Biblical: Brightness, Beautiful, Adorned, Adornment
+African: First Daughter, Oldest Daughter
+Germanic: Noble, kind, of the noble sort
+French, Greek, Danish: Noble, Nobility
+American, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian: Noble, kind
+Teutonic: Happy
+English: Prosperous; happy, Wealthy, Happy
+Hawaiian: Happy, Ornament
+Other Meanings: Sweet, Pleasant, Joyful
Origins of Ada
(I’ve edited this due to length. To read the entire text please go here http://www.babynamespedia.com)
1: Ada has its origins in the Germanic language. It is used largely in the English, German, Hungarian, Polish, and Romanian languages. Derived from the word
adal meaning ‘noble, honorable’. The name was born in the 4th century by the sister of Mausolus, the builder of the first mausoleum, and by a 7th-century abbess in France. The name was introduced from Germany to English speakers in the late 18th century. It later became popular in the 19th century, during which Lord Byron gave the name to his daughter Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), a prominent mathematician and patron of Charles Babbage the inventor of the early mechanical computer. The computer language Ada was later named after her.
2: Ada’s language of origin is Hebrew. Biblical name: In the Old Testament of the Bible, a number of women were named Adah, with various meanings such as ‘ornament’ and ‘brightness’.
Another reason I chose the name Adaline over Hannah was because of the song “Sweet Adeline”. I love Barbershop Quartet music and it’s a pretty song and I thought it would be neat to be able to sing this song to her.
In conclusion (for both posts) Adaline got her name because:
1. Daddy found it in a baby book
2. I liked the “old fashioned” name and the barbershop quartet song about it
3. It’s not too popular and trendy like many similar names
4. It’s not too different and sounds similar to other names that are popular (Addison, Madeline)
5. It has a lovely meaning.
6. The prefix and nickname “Ada” is a Bible name that can also be found in 12 other countries with 13 different beautiful meanings including “firstborn daughter”.
7. It’s perfect 🙂
So, at the risk of now making the name more trendy and popular…don’t you want to name your daughter Adaline as well?! 😉
Does your child’s name have a special meaning?
Tell me in the comments!
Be sure to stop back tomorrow when I’ll be talking about the name of our most mysterious family member…Cool Daddy!
Other “Celebrate Your Name Week” Posts:
+How Muppet got his name
+How Adaline got her name
+The meaning of Adaline’s name and why I spell it wrong
Celebrate Your Name Week: Adaline (Part 1)
March 6-12 is Celebrate Your Name Week! Yesterday I told you about how our furbaby, Muppet, got his name.
Today we’ll talk about naming Adaline.
My baby bump has a sinister handlebar mustache. Don’t be jealous.
At some point during our relationship Cool Daddy and I discussed what we’d name our daughter if we had one in the future. I’m not sure exactly how it all came about, but we’d both decided that we liked the name Rebecca Paige.
We had it settled.
Time went on and on and on…and I still wasn’t getting pregnant. It took 4 ½ years of unexplained infertility before we conceived our first baby. I started looking through baby name books and searching online. I’m not really sure if I was actually looking for a name or if I just felt that it was a rite of passage that I wanted to indulge in. Although I’d never really thought about it before, now that I was pregnant the meaning of the name became very important to me. I had already felt myself letting go of Rebecca, but once I read the meaning of the name* I was pretty sure it wasn’t for me. I felt very strongly about naming the baby Hannah if it were a girl. I’d always wanted a Biblical name and now I really related to Hannah. My husband and I thought Hannah Grace would be the perfect name for our little girl (Coincidentally Hannah also means “grace”).
Just before 12 weeks I lost the baby.
Three months later I was pregnant again. Once again I began looking in baby name books and searching online. I’m not sure why. We’d already chosen names during the last pregnancy. Still I felt myself letting go of Hannah Grace. I think part of it was because it was a name I was considering for the other baby and I just felt a little uncomfortable using it for this baby. One day while my husband and I were looking through baby name books he said, “What about Adeline? That’s pretty isn’t it?” I told him, “I love Adeline! Great pick, honey!” And I put it on my short list. I was still searching but from that moment on the baby was “Adeline” to my husband. Part of me wanted to keep both Adeline and Hannah and then decide once I saw the baby. In my mind Adaline had blue eyes and blond hair like me while Hannah had brown hair and brown eyes like her daddy. Somewhere around 34 weeks I had made up my mind.
Her name would be Adaline and here is why…
I loved the name Hannah but I felt like it was becoming too popular. Everyone seemed to be named Hannah (along with many other names that I liked including Emma, Ella, Isabella, and Ava). Because of that it seemed like the significance of the name would be lost in a sea of other Hannahs. I know a little about having a popular name (says the Jennifer from the 80s with a sister named Jessica). Then there’s Hannah Montana. I don’t have any problem with the show, but it can be a little irritating if as soon as you say “Hannah” someone thinks (or says) “Montana!”. And then one time my sister referred to the baby as “Hannah Banana”, and while that’s a cute little nickname…I know my sister. She would’ve started calling the child that all of the time and getting her everything with bananas and monkeys on it. It would’ve been overkill. So that’s why I didn’t name her Hannah. (I still love the name, though, so please do not let my hang ups stop you from naming your daughter Hannah. It’s a lovely name!).
I did name her Adaline because it’s a beautiful name. I also loved that it wasn’t popular, however, similar names like Addison and Madeline are popular. This would mean that plucking the name Adaline out of the early 20th century wouldn’t seem as foreign with similar sounding names being popular. She would also have the option of going by Adaline and being a little more unique or going by Addy like the other Addy’s and Maddy’s she’ll likely encounter. (There was no way to make Jennifer more unique. Unless you go by Lola, which isn’t Jennifer at all actually…so it doesn’t count.). We gave her the middle name “Rose” simply because I thought it sounded beautiful (and roses are my favorite flower, but it has nothing to do with the name selection). Other middle names that we considered were Grace, Joy, and Jayne.
Tomorrow I will tell you about the meaning of Adaline’s name including why I spell her name wrong 🙂
*Meaning of the name Rebecca: To bind, to ensnare, tied, captivating, knotted chord
(I still think Rebecca is a beautiful name.)
How did you choose your child’s name?
Tell me your story in the comments!
Other “Celebrate Your Name Week” Posts:
+How Muppet got his name
+How Adaline got her name
+The meaning of Adaline’s name and why I spell it wrong
Celebrate Your Name Week: Muppet
March 6-12 is Celebrate Your Name Week!
Today I’ll tell you how Muppet got his name.
Muppet (right) shortly after we brought him home. (Don’t mind my hair, I once was an 8 year old boy.)
Muppet was 4 months old when we brought him home in August 2004. He was a fluffy white ball of shaggy fur that looked a little crazy and wild like Einstein or Doc Brown from Back to the Future. Back to the Future is my absolute favorite movie of all time so we considered naming him Doc. It didn’t take me long to change my mind. Despite his wild white hair he still had a “baby face” and the name Doc just seemed too old for him.
Muppet December 2004 (8 months old)
Sticking with the BTTF theme we thought we’d try “Marty” which was definitely more youthful. My husband spent an entire day taking care of the puppy and calling him Marty. All day long I thought about how he almost didn’t look real (the dog, not my husband). He looked like a stuffed animal or a puppet. In fact, he looked like a Muppet. He looked as if Jim Henson had created him and he had a fun, sweet personality that made you believe he could start talking to you at any moment. I’ve always been a big fan of The Muppets and the name seemed to fit him perfectly. When Cool Daddy came home with the puppy that day I said, “His name is Muppet.” “I’ve been calling him Marty all day!” he said, but he agreed with me. It would already be embarrassing enough to have a giant 6’3 man walking a tiny white dog that would look like a living cotton ball on a string…why not name him Muppet too?! (At least I didn’t want to name him “Smooches”.) And that was that. We got him registered with the official name of Muppet Puppet (plus our last name). People mishear us when we say his name (do we lack annunciation?!) and often think his name is Muffin, Muffet, or Moppet. Umm, no. He’s acquired many nicknames over the years including Mr. Muppet, Muppety-Mupp, Muppy Puppy, Bubba, Bubbaloo, and Mupp. Quite often we just call him “buddy”.
When we got Muppet we were told that he was a full bred Maltese (he had “papers” and everything) but as his fur grew in it didn’t look like Maltese fur. It was long and white like it should be, but it was fluffier, not as silky, and it just wouldn’t lay down…if puffed up and out. Grooming him became an impossible task and we started getting him shaved. Now his signature “Muppet” fur that inspired his name is all gone. I can still see the Muppet in him, in his eyes and in the way he cocks his head to one side.
Muppet throughout the years during various stages of furriness
While writing about how my Muppet got his name I was curious to find out how The Muppets got their name. Here’s what Wikipedia had to say:
The word “Muppet” itself first appeared in 1956, and was said by Henson to have been created by combining the words “Marionette” and “puppet”. However, Henson was also known to have stated that it was just something he liked the sound of, and he made up the “marionette/puppet” story while talking to a journalist because it sounded plausible.
More information about the word’s origin can be found here.
Here are some dog Muppets I found on muppet.wikia.com
Rufus, Dermot, Foo Foo, Muppy, Barkley, Dog and Foo Foo.
Dog Muppets (All photos can be found through links on this page http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Dogs)
How did you choose your pet’s name?
Tell me your story in the comments!
Other “Celebrate Your Name Week” Posts:
+How Muppet got his name
+How Adaline got her name
+The meaning of Adaline’s name and why I spell it wrong
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Fun and Dysfunction 