The Great Name Debate

My parents named me "Jennifer" for two reasons: 1) they thought the name sounded nice, and 2) they needed a "J" name to fulfill their desire to have two children with matching initials. (My brother and I share "JED" as our initials - it doesn't get much more backwoods than that.)

On my almost two and a half decades on this planet, I've only recently started to use my given name. It happened when I entered the "real" world. I was always "Jeni" up until my move to new york, but once I landed here, I was told during my first job interview that my name would never fly in the business world. Now I'm "Jen" or "Jennifer", both of which still make my friends break into fits of laughter whenever I introduce them to someone who knows me from work. I don't mind the switch in names, and perpetuate it by calling myself "Jen" when I meet someone in a social situation. It's just odd to be called by a completely different name than when I was growing up. If I really prefered to be called "Jeni", I could easily just have the people in NY address me that way.

The real problem lies in how I now identify myself. I find myself struggling to figure out what to tell someone my name is when I meet them for the first time. Am I Jen? Jeni? Jennifer? It's gotten to the point that I'm not even quite sure. Obviously all variations are pretty spectacular, but what sets apart a Jeni from a Jen? Do I speak with a different tone? Do I wear my hair differently? Is there a certain age at which I'm supposed to naturally transition to Jennifer from Jeni? Is it unacceptable (er-too "midwest") to be called Jeni on the east coast? These are the thoughts that cross my mind when I shake someone's hand.