Jennifer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feminine given name of Cornish origin that became especially popular in English-speaking countries during the twentieth century
2. A common female first name, widely given to girls born in the mid-to-late twentieth century in the United States and Britain
3. A woman's personal name of Cornish origin, derived from Guinevere, that rose to great popularity in the 1960s and 1970s

Etymology: Jennifer is a Cornish name, and its popularity in English owes a lot to a single Arthurian queen. Its root is Gweniver, from Middle Cornish Gwynnever, which is cognate with the Welsh Gwenhwyfar. The name's ancestry runs back to a Proto-Brythonic form, the ancestor of the Brittonic Celtic languages spoken in Britain. The Arthurian heroine Guinevere carries the same name, so Jennifer and Guinevere are doublets, two forms of one name that reached English by different routes. The Irish name Fionnabhair may also be related, though this is less certain. What makes the modern form sound so different is a consonant shift: the initial "g" became the soft "j" sound of "jump." That change came through Anglo-Norman, the French dialect used in England after 1066, where the same name appeared as Genievre in Old French. Anglo-Norman speakers pronounced the initial sound as "j," and English adopted that pronunciation, so Gweniver became Jennifer in the mouths of English speakers.