Janet

Janet Gaynor
Origin: English
Gender: Female
Meaning: Diminutive of Jane
Pronunciation: JAN-it
Other forms: Jeannette, Jane, Jeanne, Zsanett

Thanks to my very own sister, Abby, for suggesting Janet!

It's always strange to me how in the future names like Janet, Barbara, and Lois will be fashionable just like Evelyn, Ruby, and Matilda are now. On a semi-related note, it's also a strange thought that there will be Grandmother Neveah's and Grandfather Jaxon's, and that this will totally normal to them. It begs the question of what names do you think will become ultra fashionable in the future? I'm betting on Pamela, Eugene, Nancy, Leonard, Deborah, and Janet. What do you think will become popular?

Moving back on to the main topic, which is Janet itself. I remember being really surprised when I started watching "Salem" how one of the main characters was played by an English actress named Janet Montgomery, who is only twenty-nine. When I think of a Janet, I definitely think of someone older, but when she was born, 1985, Janet was still sitting rather prettily at #205 (in the US). Janet is originally an Medieval nickname for Jane, probably coming from the French Jeannette. There are a plethora of namesakes, like actresses Janet Leigh and Janet McTeer, singer Janet Jackson, and author and activist Janet Mock.

Janet Gaynor, another namesake, was an actress who started with small roles in silent films, but went on to win the first Oscar in 1929. She won the Oscar for three separate film roles - "7th Heaven", "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans", and "Street Angel". She is the only actress to have ever done so. One of her best known films is the 1937 "A Star is Born", for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, though in 1939 she retired from acting.
She was born Laura Augusta Gainor in Philedelphia and was known as "Lolly". She was married three times, and in one she was married to the openly gay costume designer Adrian, in what has been called a "Lavender Marriage", as she herself was reported to have been gay or bisexual. Her lover had been rumored to be actress Mary Martin. Actor Bob Cummings once said "Janet Gaynor's husband was Adrian, but her wife was Mary Martin". She died in 1984 at the age of seventy-seventy due to injures from a car accident, and is buried to Adrian in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

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