John (given name)

John

Gender	Male
Origin
Word/name	Hebrew
Meaning	Yahweh is merciful
Other names
Nickname(s)	Jack
Related names	Hans, Jean, Joan, Jane, Seán, Juan, João, Ivan, Giovanni, Ian, Johan
Popularity	see popular names

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 Template:Hebrew, Yôḥanan, which means "God is generous". There are numerous forms of the name in different languages.

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.

In modern times it's a very common given name for fictional characters in books and movies, especially main characters. Examples include John Connor from the Terminator film series, and John McLane from the Die Hard film series.

Origins

The name John derives via Latin [Iōhannēs] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and Greek Ἰωάννης from the Hebrew name Template:Hebrew (Yôḥanan, also transliterated Yochanan), a short form of the long name Template:Hebrew 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 (Template:Hebrew), 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", in Scotland it is "Iain" or Ian, in the 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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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. It was reported 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.

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 Yôḥānān, whereas Jonathan derives from the Hebrew יוֹנָתָן Yônāṯān, 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, Johann, Johannes, Hannes, Hans	Johanna, Jana, Hanna
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; 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	Han, Hannes, Hans, Jan, Johan, Johannes	Hanna, Janneke, Jannetje, Jantje, Johanna
English	John, Jon, Jonn, Johnny, Jack, Evan, Ewan, Sean, Shane, Shaun, Shawn, Ian, Ivan	Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Joann, JoAnn, JoAnne, Jan, Jane, Jayne, Jayna, Janet, Janette, Jeanette, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeane, Jeanne, Jeannie, Jenny, Yoanna, Shauna, Shawna, Evan
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
Hebrew	יוחנן (Yôḥānān) Johanan	יוחנה (Yôḥannā) Johanna
Hungarian	János	Johanna, Hanna, Hanni
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
Latin	Iohannes, Ioannes
Latvian	Jānis
Lithuanian	Jonas	Janina, Jonė, Janė, Joana
Lombard	Giuàn
Macedonian	Јован (Jovan), Иван (Ivan), Jанe (Jane)
Malayalam	യോഹനൊന് (Yoohanon)
Maltese	Ġwanni
Māori	Hōne
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), Иоанн (Ioann, Hebrew's form)	Яна (Yana), Жaннa (Janna), Иoaннa (Yoanna, Hebrew's form)
Samoan	Sione
Samogitian	Juons
Sardinian	Giuanni
Scottish; Scottish Gaelic	Ian, Iain	Seonag
Serbian	Јован (Jovan), Иван (Ivan)	Јована (Jovana), Ивана (Ivana), Јованка (Jovanka)
Sicilian	Giuvanni
Slovak	Ján, Ivan	Jana, Ivana, Ivona
Slovene	Janez, Ivan, Ivo, Jan, Janko, Anže, Anžej
Spanish	Juan, Ivan	Juana, Juanita
Swedish	John
Syriac	ܝܘܚܢܢ (Yoḥannan), ܚܢܐ (Ḥanna), ܐܝܘܢ (Ewan)
Tongan	Sione
Turkish	Yahya, Yuhanna, Jan
Ukrainian	Іван (Ivan), Іванко (Ivanko)
Welsh	Ioan, Siôn, Ieuan, Evan, Ifan

See also

• All pages with titles beginning with John