# Do you know any bad Jennys?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 17, 2001, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922 "2001-02-17T23:16:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2001, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/1 "2001-02-17T23:16:11Z")

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It struck me the other day that, while there are too many Jennifers in the world (at some point in the late 60s to mid-70s, people just lost all originality in naming girls), I can’t think of a single one that I know who is a jerk, asshole, bitch, etc. All the ones I know are just freaking nice.

Is there something about the name, or are there “bad Jennys” I just haven’t met yet?

Sua

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### Author: ![fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ba0ec/32.png) [@fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fish_in_the_sky)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/2 "2001-02-17T23:21:06Z")

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I used to go to high school with a Jennifer. I wouldn’t call her a “bitch” but she was kind of a snooty, stuck up, don’t-associate-with-the-commoners kind of person.

And you want to know something really scary? That’s the only Jennifer I’ve ever known in real life. I realize it’s an insanely popular name, but I guess I just don’t get out much.

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### Author: ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2001, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/3 "2001-02-17T23:23:31Z")

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_thinks_

I don’t know ANY Jennys. At all.

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### Author: ![Just\_A\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Just\_A\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_A_Girl)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/4 "2001-02-18T00:11:27Z")

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There’s a “bad” Jenny at my school. Simply referred to as “slut”, she is just that. To be nicer about it, she is of “loose morals.” I think she had an abortion at age 14…

An Jennifer at my former church is a total bitch. I still hear stories about her on occasion. I think she’s of “loose morals” as well.

However…they are probably more like the exception to your “rule.” I know many other Jenny’s and Jennifer’s who are great.

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### Author: ![OrcaChow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@OrcaChow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OrcaChow)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/5 "2001-02-18T00:12:38Z")

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I know a Jennifer who’s obsessed about status symbols and looks at any cost, so I guess that makes her a bitch, but she’s generally pleasant.

She refused to date a particular guy until he got plastic surgery on his nose. She actually specified what he’d need to have done through the surgery. She later married the guy and insisted they live in a house they clearly can’t afford; they’ve been mooching off of relatives to keep up appearances.

The guy was simply an idiot for putting up with it all.

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### Author: ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/6 "2001-02-18T00:35:59Z")

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I must know two dozen Jennifers. All of them without exception are poster children, so I think you’re on to something here.

An explanation? I’ve spent the last two months catching babies in an obstetrics ward. If it has taught me anything, it is that you don’t realize how many people you dislike until you try to name your baby :). “We can’t call him that, I knew a Dennis in high school. He was a jerk.” This may lead to a process of self-selection. If all Jennifers/Jennys’ in the past were goody-two shoes and generally benevolent (if snobbish?), the goody-two shoe mothers and their goody-two shoe genes would have no negative associations with this name and would call their kid that. The mothers who slept around when they were thirteen and give themselves blue inkpen tattoos of pentagrams are likely to reject the name Jennifer, associating it with the uncool teacher suck-ups who don’t hang out on the smokin’ patio. “Whaddaya say we name the kid L’il Kimme?”

Well it’s just a theory.

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### Author: ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/7 "2001-02-18T00:38:06Z")

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Jenny Jones is sorta evil.

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### Author: ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/8 "2001-02-18T00:42:10Z")

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Jennifer Love Hewitt is pretty evil.

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### Author: ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/9 "2001-02-18T00:42:27Z")

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I work with a girl named Jennifer, and she’s great. Not a bitch at all, except in the good sense of the word. 🙂  
And my niece is a Jennifer. She’s not really a bitch, per se, but does have quite a degree of snobbery in her. For no reason at all. Actually, she’s quite tolerable.  
And another Jennifer I know fits your description remarkably well. Not only a slut, but an idiot. Left her child and husband to run off with another guy to have another child, then left him, (took the kid along this time) and ran off with ANOTHER guy. I think she’s all of 24 now.

Hmmm…2 out 3. Well, maybe the other two are flukes.

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### Author: ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/10 "2001-02-18T00:43:34Z")

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Jennifer Lopez. Forgot about that one…

Yeah, it’s gotta be the name.

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### Author: ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/11 "2001-02-18T03:01:03Z")

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:eek:

::runs, screaming, from the room::

[sub]Explanation: racinchikki’s a Jennifer. My ex is a Jennifer (she was evil, now that I think about it…). I attract Jennifers. It’s really starting to scare me.[/sub]

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### Author: ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/12 "2001-02-18T03:24:41Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hastur \*  
> \*\*Jenny Jones is sorta evil. \*\*

Worse: she’s boring, opportunistic and back her own self into evil through willful, self-involved oblivion.

I’ve met a few _Jennifers_ who were…Heathers. (Drat. This is getting confusing.) Snobbish navel-gazers who couldn’t see beyond their trendy designer piercing jewelery anyway. But the _Jennys_ I’ve have been funny, bright delightful people. Not that I really belive the name or the diminuative really mean anything…

But my “problem name” seems to be Marcia. Started with a close relative and went straight downhill from there. Glad to say I recently met one who breaks the trend–but gosh-almighty, it was a long streak there for a while.

Veb

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### Author: ![Jeannie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@Jeannie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeannie)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/13 "2001-02-18T04:13:16Z")

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Oh, where to begin…

I was born in 1975, so a lot of girls in high school were Jennifers. I was friends with two of them. One was extremely smart and sweet. The other was the type who’d sell her own mother if she could get a decent price. She’s the type who’d steal someone’s boyfriend just so she could say that she did. I didn’t remain her friend for long.

Other than that:

-One was a complete dipshit, very annoying, but nice.  
-One was a total stuck up snob who thought her shit didn’t stink.  
-One was a cheerleader slut who bragged of her (numerous) sexual exploits, then cried when people called her a whore.  
-The rest all fell somewhere in the spectrum.

I also have a cousin named Jennifer. She is one of those people who is beautiful, talented, sweet, smart, etc. She’s freaking perfect, and if she weren’t so nice and friendly, you’d hate her for being so perfect.

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### Author: ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/14 "2001-02-18T04:34:56Z")

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**TubaDiva** is a bad Jenny. :eek:  
[sub]If the word **BANNED** suddenly appears under my name, you’ll know why[/sub]

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### Author: ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/15 "2001-02-18T05:08:06Z")

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Ex-girlfriend was named Jennifer. She broke up with me after I told her a dirty joke. A month later, I told her about a teaching opportunity at Colorado Free University. Next catalog, she’s in there with a few classes to her name, but she never said “thanks.”

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### Author: ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/16 "2001-02-18T06:04:00Z")

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I _used_ to be a Jenny. I switched to Jennifer when I was eight, and by the time I was thirteen, gave up on the name entirely and went by my middle name.

I got tired of being lumped in with all the evil Jennifers. Nice to know I had some perspective on the problem.

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### Author: ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/17 "2001-02-18T07:06:44Z")

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I bet I’ve gone to school and worked with, at least, 40 girls/women named Jennifer. Probably more. So I’ve known 'em all - good Jennifers, bad ones, smart ones, stupid ones, virginal ones, slutty ones, everything.

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### Author: ![magdalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@magdalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magdalene)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/18 "2001-02-18T07:31:22Z")

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**Sua** , you can call me Jen. I’m pretty nice and friendly and stuff, but that doesn’t mean I’m not _bad_. 😉

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### Author: ![Soda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Soda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soda)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/19 "2001-02-18T07:41:12Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by TVeblen \*  
> **But the _Jennys_ I’ve have been funny, bright delightful people.  
> Veb**

Why, thank you! I’m a Jenny, not short for Jennifer, just Jenny.

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### Author: ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2001, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922/20 "2001-02-18T08:29:40Z")

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I work with a Jenny. She has funny hair, but apart from that she’s great. Very pleasant, intelligent, and easy to talk to.

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-any-bad-jennys/54922.md?page=2)
