You are here: Home / Archives for Life / Being a Jennifer

Most Popular Baby Names of 2011: Sophia and Jacob

May 22, 2012 By 11 Comments

The Most Popular Baby Names of 2011

Sophia and Jacob are the most popular baby names of 2011, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Yes, the SSA. They lure people over to their website to see the names hoping  they stay to learn about other services.

Back to the names.

Sophia apparently beat out Isabella, which was the most popular name the previous two years.

Isabella was one of my favorite names when I was pregnant with my now 3 1/2 year old. He turned out to be a boy, so I dodged a bullet there.

Being named Jennifer, I cringe every time I hear about another popular baby names list coming out. I just hope my boys’ names aren’t on it. According to the SSA, Jennifer ranks as the fourth most popular girls name between 1912-2011.

It gets annoying when you have a popular name. You always have to use the first initial in your last name.

Thus, the name of this website – another jennifer.

Matthew, my husband’s name, is ranked 13th among the most popular boys names.

Our parents weren’t very original.

So far, I haven’t seen my boys’ names in the top 20. Phew.

The sad part about the list? The name Mason jumped to number 2 on the boys side, possibly due to the fact that reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian’s son is named Mason. Also, the fastest riser on the girls’ list may come from Briella Calafiore, the blonde reality star hairdresser from cable TV’s “Jerseylicious.”

Yikes. I think we should stick to the biblical names. It’s much easier to explain the origin.

Who knows. Maybe we’ll see a website pop up in 35 years called another sophia.

Do you have a popular name? Where do you rank?

Filed Under: Being a Jennifer, Just for Fun, Parenting Tagged With: , ,

The Decline of Jennifers?

January 20, 2011 By 1 Comment

i heart jenniferMy friend, Jenny, sent me an article in the mail. It was written by Jennifer Graham with the title “The rise and fall of Jennifers.” I chuckled at first because only Jenny would send something like this to me. She totally knew I would appreciate it.

In the article, Graham talks about the popularity of the name Jennifer, particularly between the years of 1969 and 1985. She described the name as being synonymous with youth and vacuity.

That, apparently, was back in the day. Today, Jennifers seem to be popping up in the obituaries, at least in Graham’s observation. Though the Jennifers in the obits she found seemed to be young, it was a weird observation to see the name pop up so many times.

Back in high school, about a quarter of the girls in my class were named Jennifer. I was always Jen I. Jenny and I also hung out with Jen T, which would confused the heck out of our friend Mandy’s parents.  So, you’re going out with Jen, Jen and Jenny tonight? Today, as a Jen B, I am constantly confused with Jen G and Jen M at work, though they do very different jobs than I.

What happened to us young and vivacious Jennifers? Graham contends that there are no mass extinctions of Jennifers just yet. I agree that we still have a lot of life in us. As I celebrate my 35th birthday this week, I’d like to think that I have at least another 35 – 45 years to use my last name every time I introduce myself.

Maybe later on in life my grandkids will think the name is unique, youthful and full of life again (kind of like the name Sophia right now).

Filed Under: Being a Jennifer Tagged With: , ,

My new motto / slogan: Be bold. Be heard. Give back. Eat bacon.

January 12, 2011 By 5 Comments

I started a graduate class on marketing strategies last Saturday. Our first assignment, before we even stepped into the classroom, was to introduce ourselves to the class via a discussion board. We also had to create a motto / slogan for ourselves.

It was an interesting exercise that made me think about what’s really important to me. What I stand for. What makes me happy. What makes me different from all the other Jennifers out there. After a short brainstorm, I came up with Be bold. Be heard. Give back. Eat Bacon. Here’s my thinking:

Be bold.

I find the most success when I take risks and stand behind what I believe in. Period. It may not always be pretty, and it may not always make people happy. But if no one else is taking action around you, then who will? Susan Scott’s second principle in her book Fierce Conversations is “Come out from Behind Yourself into the Conversation and Make it Real.” I love this concept.

Be heard.

My voice is one of the most important things in the world to me, next to my kids and husband. If you’re going to be bold, then you better also work on being heard. And I don’t mean being loud. I mean formulate a thought, explore an idea, put your observations out there for others to react. No one’s going to care about or think about what’s important to you unless you put it out there. This goes for business and personal life.

Give back.

Philanthropy is important to me and something I want to explore more via this blog. Working in social services for the past 6+ years has showed me that it doesn’t take much to make a big impact. We can’t forget to share our natural talents and resources with others.

Eat bacon.

There’s really no explanation necessary here. Bacon is good, and we should eat it. I tend to focus on my love for bacon because it softens the blow when people hear about my hatred for pie. Sorry if I have offended anyone. (Not surprisingly, it was the bacon that spurred the most discussion in my first post to classmates.) Really, this part is a reminder to enjoy the things that make you happy. You can substitute bacon for whatever puts a smile on your face.

So, now that I’ve put it out there, what do you think? I kind of like it. I’m thinking of using it as I develop this blog and work on gaining more freelance writing gigs.

Update: Now that I’ve started the Another Jennifer Writing Lab, I’m using the slogan as my tagline. So far, it has generated lots of smiles.

How about you? What’s your motto / slogan?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Being a Jennifer, Writing Lab Tagged With: ,
«Older Posts