Message: "Little House on the Prairie...Jennifer?!"

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[Opinions] Little House on the Prairie...Jennifer?!

by Anthroponomastics

11/7/2009, 6:16 AM

SOMEONE had their history wrong when they produced that series. There is no way in hell that an American would name their kid Jennifer back in the 1800s.

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- Lily (Destry) +7

11/7/2009, 8:32 AM

I think she was named Jennifer because...(more)

Really? I always thought it was a very old name. Wasn't Jennie one of the most common names in the 1800s?

I think the reason why they named her Jennifer is because it was Michael Landon's favorite name, or at least one of his favorite names. According to a site he named several of his characters Jennifer or Jenny / Jennie and he himself had a daughter named Jennifer Rachel. I used to love Little House on the Prairie when I was a child and remember looking up some trivia on the internet once.

- Anthroponomastics +2

11/7/2009, 1:08 PM

Jennie was actually originally a nickname for Jane

It's one of those nicknames sprouted out of the Middle Ages. Why we have Jennet, Jenna, Jennette, Jenny...none of them are actually Jennifer. Jennifer's the Cornish form of Guinevere!

- Lily (guest) +1

11/7/2009, 1:39 PM

Couldn't she have had ancestors from there? I remember her saying that she named them after someone...well at least Benjamin.

- Anthroponomastics

11/7/2009, 1:59 PM

I'm pretty sure that Jennifer wasn't even widely used in Cornwall until very recently...I mean, Dingle Foot's sister was named Jennifer, but that was an exception, and even then that was later on than the series took place.

- Solunastra +3

11/7/2009, 12:22 PM

I think Jennie might have been a nickname for Jane.

- Lily (guest) +2

11/7/2009, 1:38 PM

It was used on its own

In the top 30 in 1880, I believe. Yeah, I think it originally came from Jane not from Jennifer. Isn't there any chance she could have known about it, though? Ancestors or books? I remember that at least Benjamin was named for someone maybe Jennifer was too.

- Anthroponomastics +1

11/7/2009, 2:00 PM

I doubt it, but the book's possible. Jennifer probably became popular in America because of Jennifer Jones (b. 1919), although that wasn't even her real name.

- Lily (guest)

11/7/2009, 3:10 PM

When you click on Jennifer it says that there was a play in which a character was named Jennifer in 1906. Yeah, I guess it's extremely unlikely but still possible.

- zachlyn (guest)

11/7/2009, 7:30 AM

My dad had the same comment when the episode aired. I think they were going for the "What's popular today to keep the viewers interested" approach.

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