White Enchantress
The scene is London – the Edwardian stage –
A new play opens by George Bernard Shaw –
That finger-wagger of the gilded age,
That rabble-rouser of the better sort –
The Doctor’s Dilemma. Will it be a draw ?
The public shrug as the critics snort –
It isn’t a flop, but it isn’t a hit,
So the world moves on for a better fit.
But lying unnoticed, there was a seed –
One of his characters, posh as the rest,
Was given a name she didn’t need –
She could have been Cathy or Claire or Cass –
But instead, her author had thought it best
To name her after a rustic lass.
And Cornish to boot, though she made no claim –
I guess he simply liked the name.
And so that name was Jennifer –
And she would come to dominate
As just the handle we prefer –
The whole thing now sounds so contrived,
But it took a while to percolate,
And for the play to be revived.
Yet slowly lifting up the blinds,
A pale phantom stalked our minds.
Now the audience in Nineteen-Oh-Six
Had heard of Blondwyn, Fiona, and Neve.
But those were for natives, who barely mix
With these theatre types, who would never think
That a child of theirs should ever receive
Such a name, if they had no family link.
And though Guinevere was hardly forgot,
They found her name no Lancelot !
Now Jenny was known for centuries –
For Jane or Joanna, and paved the way.
And Celtic awareness increasingly pleased,
With a dash of exotic, and of something new.
So when Jennifer Jones hit the screens, I’d say
That the time was ripe for its big breakthrough.
It shot up the rankings, left Anns in its wake
A working-class wide-girl, a name on the make.
But her reign was short, as she paid fame’s price –
She peaked in the Eighties, as big as her hair,
Then drifted from psyches, as parents thought twice.
Forever a signpost to the Post-War age –
For a hundred years after, we’ll find her there,
Before she slips back to the dusty page,
And she and Guinevere are equally dim.
And to think, Bernard Shaw prob’ly chose her on a whim…
I’ve touched on the pre-life of Jennies before.
Historical name data isn’t nearly as detailed as I would wish, and I can only find the top hundred names listed at ten-year intervals on the UK Office for National Statistics website. It shows Jennifer first broke onto the list in 1934 (87th), shot upto 18th in 1944, slipped slightly to 23rd in 1954, down to 45th in 1964, then rallied to 34th in 1974, and rocketted to 11th in 1984, before starting its (final ?) descent in 1994 at 42nd. This page then has a year-by-year breakdown showing 87th in 2004 and 217th in 2014. The most recent dataset for 2022 shows…457th (though remember that all of these are for births – the Jennifers we encounter will face at least a couple of decades’ lag).
