John (given name)
John is a common masculine given name in the English language of Semitic origin. The name is derived from the Latin Ioannes and Iohannes, which are forms of the Greek name Iōánnēs, originally borne by Hellenized Jews transliterating the Hebrew name Yohanan, "Graced by Yah", or Yehohanan, "Yahweh is Gracious". There are numerous forms of the name in different languages; these were formerly often simply translated as "John" in English but are increasingly left in their native forms.
It is among the most common given names in Anglophone, Arabic, Persian, Turkish 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 two highly revered saints, John the Baptist and the apostle John ; the name has since been chosen as the regnal or religious name of many emperors, kings, popes and patriarchs. Initially, it was a favorite name among the Greeks but it flourished in all of Europe after the First Crusade.
Origins
The name John is a theophoric name originating from the Hebrew name , or in its longer form , meaning "YHWH has been gracious". Several obscure figures in the Old Testament bore this name, and it grew in popularity once borne by the high priest Johanan and especially by king John Hyrcanus In the second temple period, it was the fifth most popular male name among Jews in Judaea and was borne by several important rabbis, such as Yochanan ben Zakai and Yochanan ben Nuri. The name has also long extended among Semitic women Near Eastern Christian peoples such as the Assyrians, Syriac Arameans and Maronites, with various derivatives extant, such as Younan, Yonan, Youkhanna and Youkhanan.The name John in its Greek form Ἰωάννης features prominently in the New Testament, being borne by John the Baptist, John the Apostle, and several others; the Gospel of John, three epistles, and Revelation are each attributed to a "John". As a result, the name became immensely popular in Christian societies.
In the Latin-speaking regions of the Roman Empire, the name was Latinized as Johannes. 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.
Romance derivatives
In the Roman sphere of influence, Johannes became the Italian Giovanni. In the Black Sea region, the name became the Romanian Ioan and Ion.In Iberia the name eventually changed to the Spanish Juan, feminine Juana; in the medieval Portuguese it was Juo / Joane / Joan, now João, feminine Joana, and also Ivo; in Galician, the orthography is Xan or Xoán, feminine Xoana. In Gaul, it became the Old French Jehan and later Jean ; the female form was Jehanne and later Jeanne. In the Occitano-Romance area, it became Joan and Jan in Occitan and Catalan, from older Iouan and Iohan. In Ladin, it became Giuani.
Germanic derivatives
The Germanic languages produced the masculine Johann, Joan, Jan and Janke, Jannis, Jens, Jóhannes, Jóhann,, Jön, Hans and the feminine Johanna. In England, the name John came from the Anglo-French language form Johan, itself from the Old French form Jehan. Prior to the standardization in English of the letter 'J', the letter 'I' was used interchangeably; following this shift, forms beginning in J- such as John began to be pronounced in their modern fashion withCeltic derivatives
In Welsh, the name John is rendered as Ieuan, Ifan, Iwan, Ioan or, borrowed from English, Siôn. A pet form is Ianto. Ifan eventually became rendered into English as Evan. In Irish, it is written as , Eóin, or Seán. The latter is a Gaelicisation of the Norman–French 'Jean'. 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 Cornish and Devon dialects, the form Jan gives rise to the nickname of Plymothians as 'Janners' and the midsummer festival of St. John, Golowan. The Breton form of this name is Yann, the Manx is Juan, and the Cornish is Yowann.Central and Eastern European derivatives
In Hungarian, Johannes became János, and in the Slavic languages Ivan, Jan, Ján, Honza, Janez and Jovan. In Albanian, Gjoni , Xhon, Xhoni and Jovan is used for males.Arabic derivatives
Yūḥannā and Yaḥyā, are the two versions of John in Arabic, and they are both common Arabic male given names. And because Yahya/John the Baptist is a prophet in Islam, Yahya is a very common name among Muslims.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 20th 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.
John was also among the most common masculine 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 now 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.
However, John has not been a popular one for members of the royal family. The memory of King John is tainted by negative depictions of his turbulent reign and troublesome personality and by his role as villain in the Robin Hood stories; Prince Alexander John, the youngest son of Edward VII, died shortly after birth; and another Prince John, the sickly youngest son of George V, died at age 13.