The picture at the top -- with the name labels inserted later in the story -- I found particularly charming. I hadn't realized that was Chung at the center.
Is that an excerpt from a book? I apparently reached my free limit of articles reading about abandoned pasta.
The 80s were weird. You could marry Maury Povich and still be trusted.
OMG this story is too cute and heartfelt and everything. Go Connies!
I saw the story a couple days ago, and it was heartwarming.
5: Thanks, this made it work for me!
Yes, a very nice story.
That's a great piece. I love that Chung was completely unaware of this phenomenon until the author told her about it.
5: Thanks! That was a great piece.
To answer my question about whether it was an excerpt, the answer seems to be no, though the author has a recent book. I asked because I'd seen this linked elsewhere and in that context it seemed like it might be from a book and the book sounded like something I might read.
On the generational thing, I don't remember meeting any Asian-Americans named Connie in my age group (which fits with the article) but do remember Connie Chung becoming a national anchor was a big deal.
By Connie Wang
Photographs by Connie Aramaki
I know a couple of Asian Am Connies (although one of them is a Constance) who were born in the late 70s or early 80s. I sent them this article last week and they had both already read it.
I found it very moving. (I cried, but I cry about pretty much anything lately so I guess doesn't mean much.)
I have to say I feel a little cheated because, thanks to Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones, I grew up among a shedload of Jennifers and none of them were all that inspiring.
15: After I figured out what you were talking about I wondered if it was true. Well, Al and Tommy seem to have played some part in this. ! Jennifer took over as the #1 girl name in 1970, the year the book and movie came out.
I didn't read the Connie article but I assumed the Connies in it are people worth writing about.
17: Well, they're not Trump supporters in some diner in Dubuque, but they were worth reading about anyway.
I was once driving across the country, stopped in Dubuque, became violently ill, spent the night, and woke up feeling great. Best experience possible in Iowa.
16: Oh, that's what it was about!
Now that you make the assertion clearer, I'm dubious: the name peaked in 1970, yes, but at #1, after rising through the ranks from #118 in 1950 to #61 in 1960, then #10 in 1967, #4 in 1968, and #3 in 1969.
(And it didn't drop down from #1 until 1985! What an era.)
I don't know what happened in 1960, but I'm guessing that the rise in popularity in the latter half of the sixties was linked to The Valley of the Dolls (book 1966, film with Sharon Tate in 1967) and Donovan's Jennifer Juniper (1968). But what terrible legacies to burden your female child with! Boomers are so weird!
I mean, I wouldn't call it an advance for women or anything.
ISTR last time the topic of the Wave of Jennifers came up, someone quoted an Edwardian play in which the name is considered so unusual that it has to be explained by one character to another as "the Cornish version of Guinevere". I know two: one born in the 40s, one in the 70s. Claires, though, are all around me in throngs, as many as the fallen leaves that fill the brooks in Vallombrosa.
Jennifer is Guinevere wrapped in pastry.
George Washington went to school with like 27 goddamn Jennifers.
The names that were in the British top 5 for long enough to encounter all the time, but remain rare enough in the US to distinguish that nationality to me: Gemma and Nicola.