Revisiting the “Jack and Jill”: Poll Results and Exciting Updates from ILHC, Camp Jitterbug and More

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On Monday, I posted a recap of wide-ranging discussions and debates that resulted from what I thought was a modest proposal to change the name of the “Jack & Jill” contest. I closed my post with a poll asking people what alternative name for the “Jack & Jill” they preferred. 

Nearly 400 of you voted in our poll over the past two days! I’ll reveal the results, including all the names proposed. I’ll also share some of the interesting developments that have resulted from this conversation.

The Results

We received 386 votes for alternative names for the “Jack & Jill.” Amazing!

As a reminder, this was not a referendum on whether or not you wanted the name to be changed. If you like the name as it is, more power to you. It was also not to decide on the new “official” name for the contest formerly known as the “Jack & Jill.” None of us have that kind of authority. It was intended as a helpful barometer for organizers and others to know what alternative names are popular. At the end of the day, individual organizers are going to do what they feel makes the most sense for their event and their audience (as you will see below).

With that long-winded proviso, here’s the results!

Most Popular Name: The Mix & Match!

Summary of the most popular suggestions:

  • “Mix & Match” was clearly the most popular name, receiving more than 50% of the votes. 
  • “The Social Division” and “J&J” were nearly tied at 13.5% and 12.7%. 
  • “The Carey Competition” and “Jess & Jo” received about 3% of the votes each.

Here are all the proposed names, in order of votes received.*

Mix & Match    195
The Social Division    52
J&J    49
The Carey Competition / The Carey Switch    16
Jess & Jo    11
Lindy Lottery    4
Random Partner    4
Random Tandem    4
Roulette / Swing Roulette    4
Luck of the Draw    2
Jam & Jelly    2
Lead & Follow    2
Dance With A Stranger    1
Fred and Ethel    1
Jack or Jill    1
Jall and Jick    1
Jumble & Jam    1
Jump n Jam     1
Lucky Dip    1
Mixed Doubles    1
Nice to Meet You    1
RAP (Randomly assigned partner)    1
Strangers in the Night    1
The Heisenberg (inherent uncertainty thitherto)    1
The Lindy Lottery    1
TuttiFruitti     1

* Naturally, some of you disregarded the intent of the poll. Eighteen of you voted for “Jack & Jill.” 

Events Announcing New Contest Names

As a reminder the impetus behind this whole effort was the announcement by the European Swing Dance Championships in April that they were looking to rename their "Jack & Jill" and were soliciting the community for ideas.

 

While all of this has been going on, we’ve been hearing that events big and small have been announcing alternative contest names. Here’s some of them:

International Lindy Hop Championships

“ILHC announces “J&J” competition name change to “Luck of the Draw”. The Directors of the International Lindy Hop Championships, Tena Morales-Armstrong, Nina Gilkenson, and Sylvia Sykes, met in May to continue an ongoing conversation regarding making ILHC’s “J&J” competition, and the event itself, more inclusive to everyone in our community. As a result, the Directors have decided to change the name of their random partner competitions from “J&J” to “Luck of the Draw.” ”

From the ILHC Facebook feed.

LindyFest

“Lindyfest announces “J&J” competition name change to “Luck of the Draw”.”

From the LindyFest Facebook feed.

Camp Jitterbug

“There has been some very constructive conversation on the “Jack and Jill” competition title. We at Camp Jitterbug have always welcomed and celebrated the diversity of our community and have changed the “Jack and Jill” competitions titles to “Social” competitions. Words matter and we are very excited about this movement towards embracing everyone in our community by not being gender specific on lead and follow roles. Changing this competition title is one small but important step to participate in making change continue in the right direction.”
“Hey folks - you may notice a name change on our website - the jnj divisions are now being called Lindy Lottery. Working on trying make sure the registration form matches but it may take a few hours. Thanks for your understanding!”

From their Facebook feed.

Other events and their alternative names:

Did I miss any?

Final Thoughts

Thanks everyone for participating, suggesting names, advocating for your favorites, and voting. 

I know for many that this feels like a lot of energy, drama and vitriol for something so small as a name change. But for me it lends evidence to my original argument that words matter and how we describe things has real effects on other people and the larger world. 

I will be the first to say that words are not enough. It’s our real actions with each other that make a difference, how we express care for one another, how we welcome people who might be different from ourselves, how we treat someone we disagree with, and how we dance together. Let’s keep dancing and keep talking.