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Q: Is Jena Engstrom related to Jenna Elfman?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

The answer to your question is no, Jena Engstrom and Jenna Elfman are not related, but you raise an interesting point about names.

The European-derived tradition is to use one's given name first, and family name second. However, in other parts of the world that's reversed. Does that ever happen in Hollywood?

It seems that it does not. In a business that places so much emphasis on names -- for example, the Screen Actors Guild has ruled about not having two members with the same name, which is why many actors work under pseudonyms -- it's not surprising that people feel pressure to adopt the local standard.

An interesting example is the critically acclaimed Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai. His given name is Kar-Wai, but as per the Chinese tradition, it goes after the family name. However, his film credits are all over the place -- sometimes he's credited on films as Wong Kar-Wai, and sometimes as Kar-Wai Wong (perhaps in despair, he occasionally just goes by WKW).

We've gone somewhat far afield from your question, but this does relate in that 1960s western-TV actress Jena Engstrom and modern-day sitcom star Jenna Elfman could have been related if Jena was their family name. However it isn't, and anyway, they spell it differently.

They are, however, both part of showbiz clans. Engstrom is the daughter of TV actress Jean Engstrom. The two were actually working around the same time, but despite having roles on a number of the same shows, they only appeared on screen together once, in a 1961 episode of "Rawhide."

Elfman married into a film family. Her husband is Bodhi Elfman ("Criminal Minds"), an actor who is the son of weirdo horror-film director Richard Elfman, who is best known for the 1980 cult favorite "Forbidden Zone." Part of the reason it's so beloved is its score, an early work by the great film composer Danny Elfman, Richard's brother (and thus Jenna's uncle-in-law).

 

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