A rose by any other name

Just how good a job did Bill and Laura do naming their little Miss Horton?

Jennifer:

Gwenhwyvar, the Welsh name, was adopted and Frenchified to Guinevere by the Normans. The Cornish form, Jennifer, was little known outside of Cornwall until the twentieth century.
Originally it meant "White Wave," "White Lady," or "Fair Smooth," from "gwen" (white) and "hwyvar" (smooth). Commonly given are "pure," "soft," "fair one."

Or maybe it's just the minor genius of that whole King Arthur/Queen Guinevere thing from the Cruise of Deception, not that Jack is exactly the King Arthur type. But (confession alert) I have always really dug the whole man-of-the-world-meets-other-worldly-ingenue vibe of their early relationship ("other-worldly" in the sense that Jack considered Jennifer way out of his league), so even though their outfits for the dress-up dance on that cruise were silly, I sigh every single time I watch that scene in the stateroom where she plants the sword on the bed and tells Jack about how Arthur taught Guinevere the ways of the world and the power of words and the power of love, yadda yadda. So subtlely obvious. Anyway, Jennifer (when written properly) sure is a tough little cookie, but somewhere in her appeal was that pureness, to the point of almost untouchability. That she was fiesty and stubborn and often in way over head kept the ingenue act from getting cloying, but the untouchability underneath made for a lot of great angst back in the day.

P.S., as I was writing this up I rewatched the clip of that Arthur/Guinevere chat in the stateroom and I noticed how it would make a great flashback to show during the current Frankie storyline:

"There's something I remembered. The facts of the legend of King Arthur."
"What about the legend of King Arthur, Jack? I thought you said you didn't know anything about the legend of King Arthur."
"I happen to be a fan of Richard Burton's I remember a few things."
"Like what?"
"Like the fact that Guinevere dumped Arthur. In the final reel, she dumped Arthur and ran off with Lancelot."
"Jack that is so like you, you know that?"
"Hey I didn't write it. I can't help it if Guinevere was fickle and faithless."
"Well maybe it was King Arthur's fault. Maybe he was so miserable and worthless, and maybe he trated her so badly that she just got fed up and left."
"No, I don't think so."
"What do you think, Jack?"
"I'm going to tell you what I think. I'm telling you a story, it goes like this. Arthur gave her up, but he did it on purpose. See this guy was smart, he knew that he couldn't make her happy. I mean it was hard keeping that round table round in those days. And he knew that she'd be a lot happier with Lancelot. So he did the thing that was most noble. That was most civilized. He gave her up."
"He may have been noble, Jack, but he also ended up alone. Very much alone."

Now, I know I've sorta said that I am sooooo over martyrs, but when accented with the proper Jack-esque cynicism, the whole nobly misguided act really looked good on him. And with all Frankie's done for Jack, wouldn't he fit in as Lancelot, the perfect white knight? (Those so inclined can vomit now if they wish.) And of course the best part was how Jennifer reinterpretted the legend into a cautionary tale for Jack, warning Arthur to not let Jennif-- erm, Guinevere get away, because she wanted Arthur. That was Jennifer, determined to get her happy ending her way, desite how the story typically went.

Yeah that settles it, they so should have chosen that flashback.