- John (given name)
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John is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Latin Ioannes, Iohannes, which is in turn a form of the Greek Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs. This Greek name is a form of the Hebrew name יוֹחָנָן, Yôḥanan, which means "God is generous". There are numerous forms of the name in different languages.[1]
It is among the most common given names in Anglophone and European countries; traditionally, it was the most common, although it has not been since the latter half of the 20th century. John owes its unique popularity to the vast number of Emperors, Kings, Popes and Patriarchs that have borne the name; and also to two highly revered saints, John the Baptist and the apostle John, who wrote the Book of Revelation. Initially, it was a favorite name among the Greeks but it flourished in all of Europe after the First Crusade.[2]
Contents
Origins
The name John derives via Latin Iōhannēs and Greek Ἰωάννης from the Hebrew name יוחנן (Yôḥanan, also transliterated Yochanan), a short form of the long name יְהוֹחָנָן Yehochanan, meaning "Yahweh is merciful". Yochanan was the name of several important rabbis in the Second Temple Period in Israel, such as Yochanan ben Zakai and Yochanan ben Nuri.
The name had gained popularity among Jews in Judea and Galilee by the time the area became a province of the Roman Empire in 6 A.D. and before. John Hyrcanus (יוחנן הורקנוס), was the first king of the Hasmonean Dynasty, and was the nephew of Judas Maccabeus. It was the given name of Yochanan ben Zechariah, a Jewish prophet known in English as John the Baptist.
The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Hebrew name was adapted in Greek as Ἰωάννης, Iōannēs. The name Ioannes became extremely popular among the early Christians, and bearers include such noted members of the early church as Ioannes Chrysostomos.
Continental Europe
The name came into use in other parts of the Christianized Roman Empire. The Western areas of the Roman Empire did not, however, speak Greek like the areas in the East. Instead, they spoke Latin. Accordingly, in the Western part of the Roman Empire the name was Latinized as Iohannes (pronounced like the Greek).
The local populations in these areas of the Roman Empire soon changed Roman names to fit their own dialect, which included dropping the suffixes -us and -es from such names. In the Roman sphere of influence, Johannes became the Italian Giovanni (also Gianni, Gian and other derivates), the Germanic Johann (also Jannis, Jan, Hans), the Hungarian János, and the Slavic languages Ivan, Jan, Ján, Honza, Janez and Jovan, and Ion in the area on the Black Sea that is now Romania. On the outskirts of the Empire in the newly converted Ireland it became the Irish Seán. In some cases, the pronunciation of the original initial "Y"/"I" also changed to variants of "J", so that in Iberia the name eventually changed to the Spanish Juan and the medieval Portuguese Juo/Joane (now João) and Ivo. In Gaul, it became the Old French Jehan and later Jean (pronounced /ʒɑ̃/). In the Occitano-Romance area it became Joan (feminine, Joana) and Jan in Occitan and Catalan, from older Iouan and Iohan. In Albanian, Gjon, or either Gjin is used for males. In Welsh, the name John is rendered as Ieuan (pronounced as Yay-an or Yey-an), and as Ifan (pronounced Evan) or Ianto (pronounced as Yan-to). Ifan eventually became rendered into English as Evan.
In English-speaking countries
In the 11th century the Norman duke William the Conqueror invaded and conquered England and brought his French knights and their dialect with him. In England, the French name Jean came to be pronounced like the current name John, though prior to the adoption into English of the letter 'J', the letter 'I' was used. Seventeenth-century English texts still spelled the name Iohn. Since then, it has been spelled in its current form, John.
Name statistics
John has been a common given name in English speaking countries, and either it or William was the number one name in England and English speaking North America from around 1550 until the middle of the twentieth century.
John was the most popular name given to male infants in the United States until 1924, and though its use has fallen off gradually since then, John was still the 20th most common name for boys on the Social Security Administration's list of names given in 2006.[3] In modern times John is the most common name in the United States, borne as a first or middle name by 39.93 people per thousand; of these, 72.86% have it as the given name.[citation needed] When the statistics of the name are compared to the population statistics of America, the approximate number of people named John in the USA is 12,328,091 and the number of Johns in the USA is increasing by 104,925 each year.[citation needed]
It was also long the most common male name in the United Kingdom, but by 2004 it had fallen out of the top 50 names for newborn boys in England and Wales.[4] By contrast Jack, which was a nickname for John but is established as a name in its own right, was the most popular name given to newborn boys in England and Wales every year from 1995 to 2005.[4][5]
In the UK, the name John has not been a popular name for members of the royal household. King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215; Prince John, the youngest son of Edward VII, died shortly after birth; and The Prince John, the youngest son of George V, suffered from epilepsy and died in his sleep at age 13. The name John has therefore been avoided as unlucky by the British Royal Family.[citation needed] It was reported[who?] that Diana, Princess of Wales wished to name her elder son "John", after her own father, but was prevented from doing so by royal tradition.[citation needed]
Common mistakes
Because the name Jonathan is sometimes abbreviated as Jon, John is often incorrectly considered to be a short form of Jonathan, especially in the United States. John comes from the Hebrew name Yôḥānnān,[6] whereas Jonathan derives from the Hebrew יוֹנָתָן Yônāṯān,[7] which means "Gift from the Lord" and thus is a longer version of Nathan.
In other languages
language masculine form feminine form Afrikaans Jan, Johan, Johannes Albanian Gjon, Gjin Amharic ዮሐንስ (Yoḥännǝs) Arabic يحيى (Yaḥyā, Qurāʾnic), يوحنا (Yūḥannā, Biblical) Aramaic ܝܘܚܢܢ (Yuhanon) Aragonese Chuan Armenian Հովհաննես (Hovhannes) Asturian Xuan Basque Jon, Yon, Ion, Manez, Ganix, Joanes Belarusian Янка (Yanka), Янэк (Yanek), Ясь (Yas'), Iван (Ivan) Янiна (Yanina) Bosnian Ivan Breton Yann Bulgarian Иван (Ivan), Йоан (Yoan) Ивана (Ivana), Иванка (Ivanka), Йоана (Yoana), Йоанна (Yoanna), Йоанка (Yoanka) Catalan Joan Joana Chinese Chinese: 約翰; Mandarin Pinyin: Yuēhàn; Jyutping: joek3 hon6; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ióu hān Corsican Ghjuvanni Croatian Ivan, Ivo, Ive, Ivica, Ivano, Ivanko, Janko Ivana, Iva, Ivanka, Ivančica Czech Jan, Honza Jana Danish Hans, Jens, Jan, Jon, Johan, Johannes Hanne, Johanne Dutch Hannes, Hans, Jan, Johan, Johann, Johannes Jantje English John, Ewan, Sean, Shawn, Johnny, Jack, Ian, Evan Jonn, Joanna, Joan, Joanne, Jan, Jane, Jayne, Janet, Janette, Jeanette, Janice, Jean, Yoanna Esperanto Johano Estonian Jaan, Juhan, Juho, Janno, Jukk, Jaanus, Hannes, Hans Extremaduran Huan Faroese Jógvan Filipino Juan Juana Finnish Hannes, Hannu, Jani, Janne, Johannes, Juha, Juho, Juhani French Jean, Jehan (outdated) Jeanne, Jeannette (short), Jehane (outdated) Galician Xoán, Xan Georgian იოანე (Ioane) German Hans, Hannes, Johannes, Johann, Jan Jana, Janina, Johanna, Hanna, Hanne Greek Ιωάννης (Ioannis), Γιάννης(Yiannis, sometines Giannis) Ιωάννα (Ioanna), Γιάννα (Yianna, sometimes Gianna) Guaraní Huã Hakka Yok-Hon Hebrew יוחנן (Yôḥānān) יוחנה (Yôḥannā) Hindi योहन Hungarian János Icelandic Jóhann, Jóhannes Indonesian Yohannes, Yahya Irish Seán, Shaun, Shane/Seaghan, Eoin/Eoghan Italian Giovanni, Gianni, Giannino, Ivan, Ivano, Ivo, Vanni, Nino, Vannino Giovanna, Gianna, Giannina, Ivana, Iva, Nina, Vania Japanese ジョン (Jon) Latin Ióhannes Latvian Jānis Lithuanian Jonas Janina, Jonė, Janė, Joana Lombard Giuàn Macedonian Јован (Jovan), Иван (Ivan), Jанe (Jane) Malayalam യോഹനൊന് (Yoohanon) Maltese Ġwanni Norwegian Jon, Johan, Johannes Persian Yohannan Piedmontese Gioann Polish Jan Janina Portuguese João, Ivo Joana Romanian Ion, Ioan, Ionuţ, Ionel, Ionică Ioana Russian Иван (Ivan), Ян (Yan), Иоанн (Ioann, Hebrew's form) Яна (Yana), Жaннa (Janna), Иoaннa (Yoanna, Hebrew's form) Samogitian Juons Sardinian Giuanni Scottish Gaelic Iain, Ian Serbian Јован (Jovan), Иван (Ivan) Јована (Jovana), Ивана (Ivana) Sicilian Giuvanni Slovak Ján, Ivan Jana, Ivana, Ivona Slovene Janez, Ivan, Ivo, Jan, Janko, Anže, Anžej Spanish Juan, Ivan Juana, Juanita Swedish Jan, Jon, Johan, Johannes, Hannes, Hans Johanna, Joanna, Jenny, Jennie, Jennika, Jennifer, Hanna Syriac ܝܘܚܢܢ (Yoḥannan), ܚܢܐ (Ḥanna), ܐܝܘܢ (Ewan) Tongan Sione Tamil Arul Turkish Yahya, Yuhanna, Jan Ukrainian Іван (Ivan), Іванко (Ivanko) Uzbek Yahyo Tiếng Việt Gio-an Welsh Ioan, Siôn, Ieuan, Evan, Ifan See also
- All pages beginning with "John"
References
- ^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006), A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 146, ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1
- ^ Behind the Name: John
- ^ "Popular Baby Names". Ssa.gov. http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ^ a b "Top UK baby names 2004". Babycentre.co.uk. http://www.babycentre.co.uk/refcap/564059.html. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ^ "National Statistics". Statistics.gov.uk. September 8, 2009. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/specials/babiesnames_boys.asp. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ^ Mike Campbell. "Meaning, Origin and History of the Name John". Behind the Name. http://www.behindthename.com/name/john. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ^ Mike Campbell. "Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Jonathan". Behind the Name. http://www.behindthename.com/name/jonathan. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
Categories:- English-language masculine given names
- English masculine given names
- Given names
- Masculine given names
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