By the time the year 1988 AD rolled around, the name Jennifer had dropped to number five on the list of most popular baby names for newborn girls, usurped of the lofty position of number one it had held for a record fourteen years. Her alphabetical neighbor, Jessica, had finally wrestled the position of foremost on most mothers’ minds in 1985 and from then on it was a slow descent down the top ten. The young woman, Jennifer, or Jen as she was called, did not inherently hate women named Jessica, although it should be noted that she did not have a single friend who bore the name and her stomach twisted a little when the boy she liked called her Jess instead of Jen.
