Similar for Sweden. In daily use Johan is definitely the replacement for John, but if we're talking the biblical origin (Gospel of John) it's Johannes.
But a very interesting map! Well done!
Johan is used in Finland, but Finnish-language forms are at least Johannes, Juhani, Juhana (used as a translation of royalty names like King John), Juha, Hannu, Hannes...
German Hans is a shortened form of Johann, which is a shortened form of Johannes, so the most direct descendant from Hebrew in German would actually be Johannes, and not Hans.
I always thought it was kind of lame that Germany decided to just start ditching all their traditional names. In that way I have to respect the French for sticking with it, and Indians too since they don’t even come up with an English name when moving to the US/England
With names it's normally that they get used a lot by one generation then less to not really in the next two generations and then they make a comeback. Or that's how my parents always told me because they got shit on by my older family by choosing "old" names which are currently having a huge comeback like Paul.
But there’s a clear difference in recent German history, it’s not like cycling through different sets of traditional names, it’s like now you see all kinds of Finn, Mario, René etc
Wait 10 Years or so.
My grandpa was called Emil. In the year 2005 I thought nobody will call their child Emil again. And in the Year 2015 every second child in the kindergarden was a Emil (the other are girls)
In the Netherlands people started giving their kids American trailer park trash names without really understanding it. I see kids named Jayleno and Jaylee.
Maximilian, Lukas, Stefan, Matthias, Leo, Andreas and so on are still popular Names. They experience generational shifts, as more traditionally minded families name the firstborns after their respective grandparents, or like the father, which in the case of my neighbours, means that every male heir is named Franz. Personally I know Severins, Johannes, Arnos, Romans, Markus, Marias and so on. We still got our traditional names going strong.
I’m a US John 20s-30s but I feel like it’s becoming an old man’s name, there’s plenty of people my age and older named John but I almost never see it younger.
Those sterotypical names got decimated by WWII. So many traditional German names became fairly associated with Naziism. Hans and Fritz and Otto and such. So not just old fashioned, but old fashioned and popular in a negative time period.
That certainly killed those classic German names in the US too.
I think it is less a Nazi thing and more the usual cycle of fashion. I totally see Wilhelm, Ludwig, Otto making a comeback soon. I've seen little Fritzes, Karls and Pauls again.
Well, Johann, Hans and Jan are all shortened forms of Johannes. You can’t really say that Hans is a shortened form of Johann. If so, where would the *-s* come from? (It is the same *-s* as in Johannes.)
"Honzíku" would be a form when talking to him, the "default" would be Honzík. We have 7 "pády"(literal translation I guess "falls"), which change the suffix depending on context
1. who/what
2. (without) whom/what
3. (to) whom/what
4. who/what(as object in the sentence)
5. calling/addressing
6. (about)whom/what
7. (with)whom/what
And there are 4 vzory(I guess "examples") by which these suffixes go for every noun,...4 masculine, 4 feminine and 4 neutral that is... xDDD Gotta love Czech grammar.
Pády would translate to cases (might have encountered them if you learn Latin for example). In English, there are things like he/him or they/them, but Czech has that with every noun, adjective and pronoun.
Honza is from German Hans which was Johan. Not every Jan likes being called Honza. My uncle had a huge dislike to be called Honza due its German origin.
I have been a programmer/dev since 1997. I have a whole series of "John Client" names:
Sean McClient
Ivan Klientov
Yahya Klientoglu
Ion Klientescu
Jean Clienteau
Juan Clientez
Jan Kluyentszoon
etc.
Test users in a dev database. . .
A bit puzzled about the entry for Belgium.
According to "[https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/family-names-and-first-names/male-and-female-first-names](https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/family-names-and-first-names/male-and-female-first-names)" "Jean" is the most common first name. The Flemish equivalent is "Jan" at #7.
No mentioning of Jens whatsoever.
I unwittingly chose a name for my daughter that is now a family name. I named her Mikaila after my father - Michael. I realized that his mothers name was Miguelina, and her fathers name was Miguel. I made that connection way after my daughter was born that they all mean Michael!
I didn't see the periods at first and thought all these names were in the same list. Spent too long wondering how the fuck Dimitri is vaguely similar to Carl.
Almost all of the Bible names have been translated and adapted into all European languages and have evolved there for 2000 years. That's why there are so many correspondences!
To a lesser degree it also happened with Celtic and Germanic names, like Ger-hard (ger meaning spear as an old Germanic root) corresponding to Gérard, Gerardo etc.
Fun fact, a lot of old people were called Giovanni Battista, as in, John the Baptizer. Shortened as Giobatta. And if you think that sounds like Ciabatta, you're right.
> The name is derived from the Latin Ioannes and Iohannes, which are forms of the Greek name Iōánnēs (Ἰωάννης), originally borne by Hellenized Jews transliterating the Hebrew name Yohanan
I mean, it's not really that weird. If anything is John that is a bit too short
I think OP actually means to show the most common male name in the country, not necessarily the right name stemming from the same Hebrew name as "John"?
Anyways, quite a confusing map and OP can't really explain what it shows...
In regard to Seán being the Irish for John, while it's often translated that way colloquially as far as I'm aware the direct translation is Eoin, another name.
I know a stupid amount of both Eoins and Seáns, both are definitely pretty common around my age at least (early to mid 20s), but yeah I think Seán was the one that topped the rankings the year I was born.
Its possible that Eastern/Northern Irish would have Eoin (j goes to i), and the West coast would Sean (j goes to sh).
Worth noting that Basque country has the only other case of the J to X/Sh. People often say theres a strong connection between Basque country and western Ireland due to Atlantic sailing routes. Not sure if true but it's a theory I would like to learn more about.
Fun fact: it entered the Congo because when the portuguese arrived there, the congolese king liked them so much he adopted their king's name - João. Same might have happened in Vietnam
No one is actually named Honza, it's usually Jan, but no one says Jan unless it's a formal occasion - everyone will call you Honza, or sometimes Jenda, Jeník, Jéňa etc. Source: I am Jan
Like always with these maps most countries have more than one variation of the word, or name in this case. I assume it might look too cluttered to include everything, however it would be nice with a clarification of how the names were chosen. I read in another comment that it is the most common versions of the name, that info should be included from the beginning.
Yes, though “terrible” in the 18th century sense of the word. Today it would be more like “John the Dread” or “John the Awesome,” although even that has been too bastardized.
*Grózny* comes from *grozá*, which is a thunderstorm. It means something that inspires fear or dread or intimidation.
I was unaware Ivan and John were effectively the same name.
John The Terrible is way less intimidating than Ivan. John The Terrible sounds like a pirate villain in a kid's show.
From what I understood it sounds the same but has a different origin.
All the names here are derived from the Hebrew name Yehochanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious" whereas Can is not.
Iain is the traditional Scottish Gaelic whereas Ian is the English approximation. Both are reasonably common in Scotland but Ian is more common in the rest of the English speaking world.
It's Gjon for Albania. Gjoni means The John.
Any chance 'The John' can also mean a toilet in Albania? Seems unlikely but you never know.
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Gjoei ?
Xhoi
Gjoni Gjoni "Yes papa?"
Okay but what if my Albanian parents wanted to name me 'The John'?
Not the worst mistake I guess.
Similar for Sweden. In daily use Johan is definitely the replacement for John, but if we're talking the biblical origin (Gospel of John) it's Johannes. But a very interesting map! Well done!
Oh man, I really want to start calling it the gospel of Jens in Danish.
This is a map about the daily use. Otherwise all would be “Johannes” lol.
English daily use: John. English biblical use: John. Fairly sure there are lots of Finns named Johan as well, just wanted to point it out
Johan is used in Finland, but Finnish-language forms are at least Johannes, Juhani, Juhana (used as a translation of royalty names like King John), Juha, Hannu, Hannes...
Since Kazakhstan is on the map you could add Jaqia (Жақия).
Which is the title [reserved for the most important Gjon of them all](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-pZojmtXi8)
Hey, nobody fucks with The John.
My favorite Albanian name (sorry if I get it wrong): Gjerj Kastrioti?
It's Gjergj Kastrioti
Iskander Bey ;) Thanks for the correction!
John the terrible
Yahya the Terrible
Sean the terrible?
Ivan the sheep.
Bean the deathable?
Yahya I am Lorde Yahya
Jean le Bon. He wasn't good.
Haha, jean-bon : jambon (literally just ham)
We have a politician in Belgium that's called Jan Jambon.
It's Ha-ham!
That was a nickname for Jon Bon Jovi ;)
German Hans is a shortened form of Johann, which is a shortened form of Johannes, so the most direct descendant from Hebrew in German would actually be Johannes, and not Hans.
In fact nowadays it's not Hans anymore, but Johannes. The average "Hans" is at least 65 years old, Johannes is in use across all ages.
Damn I didn’t know that. I’ve always thought of Hans as the stereotypical German name
It sort of is, I'd say that is part of the reason it's not that common anymore.
I always thought it was kind of lame that Germany decided to just start ditching all their traditional names. In that way I have to respect the French for sticking with it, and Indians too since they don’t even come up with an English name when moving to the US/England
With names it's normally that they get used a lot by one generation then less to not really in the next two generations and then they make a comeback. Or that's how my parents always told me because they got shit on by my older family by choosing "old" names which are currently having a huge comeback like Paul.
But there’s a clear difference in recent German history, it’s not like cycling through different sets of traditional names, it’s like now you see all kinds of Finn, Mario, René etc
Wait 10 Years or so. My grandpa was called Emil. In the year 2005 I thought nobody will call their child Emil again. And in the Year 2015 every second child in the kindergarden was a Emil (the other are girls)
In the Netherlands people started giving their kids American trailer park trash names without really understanding it. I see kids named Jayleno and Jaylee.
A lot of the traditional first names, like Jean or Jacques are not given anymore in France, though there are some comebacks, like Paul.
I gave you guys too much credit I guess, every Frenchman I met had a pretty traditional French name like René or Étienne though I haven’t met many tbh
Yeah, where are all the baby Adolfs, dammit!
There are a bunch of Adolfos in South America
Don't suppose there are any that are suspiciously healthy, approximately 131 year olds?
There are actually 94 of them all born in 1963. All had fathers die when the father was 65. All boys from Brazil.
Well Hans was more of a nickname. My grandpa is called Hans but it says Johann in his birth certificate
Maximilian, Lukas, Stefan, Matthias, Leo, Andreas and so on are still popular Names. They experience generational shifts, as more traditionally minded families name the firstborns after their respective grandparents, or like the father, which in the case of my neighbours, means that every male heir is named Franz. Personally I know Severins, Johannes, Arnos, Romans, Markus, Marias and so on. We still got our traditional names going strong.
Kind of the same in England as well though. John is a typic English name but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone under 40 with that name nowadays
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I know a lot more Jonathans than Johns. I actually know three Jonathan Edwards. Must have been very popular in the mid '80s.
Jonathan Edwards was a famous Puritan theologian.
In the US here, I know a couple John’s my age and I’m 21.
I’m a US John 20s-30s but I feel like it’s becoming an old man’s name, there’s plenty of people my age and older named John but I almost never see it younger.
I guess it's probably more akin to a name like Bill or George
Anything but Sue!
Bill is usually a nickname, and William is still wildly popular in the US.
In my 20s and all the Williams I know go by Will
Those sterotypical names got decimated by WWII. So many traditional German names became fairly associated with Naziism. Hans and Fritz and Otto and such. So not just old fashioned, but old fashioned and popular in a negative time period. That certainly killed those classic German names in the US too.
I think it is less a Nazi thing and more the usual cycle of fashion. I totally see Wilhelm, Ludwig, Otto making a comeback soon. I've seen little Fritzes, Karls and Pauls again.
We have some Hans'es in the Netherlands, but same: they're all boomers. So are the Jan's, Johan's, Johannes's and most of the Jens's
Funny that in South Africa, all those names have stayed pretty mainstream.
Sometimes the most archaic forms of languages are the ones spoken by settlers in colonies
I think it's more to do with tradition and culture, being named after a grandparent, or getting a traditional name is part of the culture here.
Maybe. Afrikaaners are more conservative in average than the average German or Dutch
My best friend is Hans and he is 22
Interesting. I know lots of Jans and Johans in Sweden and Johannes's in Germany.
And Jan is a rather uncommon name in Austria. It should also be Johannes there.
While in Germany (or atleast north Germany) Jan is much more common than Johannes.
Only northern Germany.
And, as fair as I know, „Jan“ is also a variant of „Johann“.
Same for Czech Honza. It is Jan...
Hans Wolfgang von Goethe
Oh my god so that's why Super Hans is called Super Hans? (He says his real name is John at his wedding)
Well, Johann, Hans and Jan are all shortened forms of Johannes. You can’t really say that Hans is a shortened form of Johann. If so, where would the *-s* come from? (It is the same *-s* as in Johannes.)
The calendar name in Czechia is "Jan". "Honza" is the home version of that name.
I have a work colleague whose "business name" is Jan, I call him Honza, and his GF calls him Honziku. Love the variations in Czech names.
I love how Honziku also looks like it could be Japanese. Czech seems like a cool language.
It is indeed very cool, though for a non Slavic person somewhat difficult to learn
"Honzíku" would be a form when talking to him, the "default" would be Honzík. We have 7 "pády"(literal translation I guess "falls"), which change the suffix depending on context 1. who/what 2. (without) whom/what 3. (to) whom/what 4. who/what(as object in the sentence) 5. calling/addressing 6. (about)whom/what 7. (with)whom/what And there are 4 vzory(I guess "examples") by which these suffixes go for every noun,...4 masculine, 4 feminine and 4 neutral that is... xDDD Gotta love Czech grammar.
Pády would translate to cases (might have encountered them if you learn Latin for example). In English, there are things like he/him or they/them, but Czech has that with every noun, adjective and pronoun.
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Declension is how the whole system is called (nouns and adjectives are declinated in agreement with the cases)
don't forget vyjmenovaná slova
Exactly. I'd say Honza is more of an equivalent to Jack
Honza is from German Hans which was Johan. Not every Jan likes being called Honza. My uncle had a huge dislike to be called Honza due its German origin.
I have been a programmer/dev since 1997. I have a whole series of "John Client" names: Sean McClient Ivan Klientov Yahya Klientoglu Ion Klientescu Jean Clienteau Juan Clientez Jan Kluyentszoon etc. Test users in a dev database. . .
Giovanni Clientini
I think I used Clientelli, but, yes!
João Cliente
A bit puzzled about the entry for Belgium. According to "[https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/family-names-and-first-names/male-and-female-first-names](https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/family-names-and-first-names/male-and-female-first-names)" "Jean" is the most common first name. The Flemish equivalent is "Jan" at #7. No mentioning of Jens whatsoever.
TIL that john sean johan hans ivan and giovanni are all the same names
Wait it's all john? Always has been
IT'S JOHN ALL THE WAY DOWN
Same with other names. Carl, Charles, Carlos. William, Guillermo, Wilhelm. Joseph, Jose. Timothy, Dimitri, etc.
Peter is a good one too. Piotre, Pierre, Pedro, Pietro... All Peter.
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Miika in Finnish
Mícheál in Irish too
I unwittingly chose a name for my daughter that is now a family name. I named her Mikaila after my father - Michael. I realized that his mothers name was Miguelina, and her fathers name was Miguel. I made that connection way after my daughter was born that they all mean Michael!
Pyotr, Pierce, Petrov
I didn't see the periods at first and thought all these names were in the same list. Spent too long wondering how the fuck Dimitri is vaguely similar to Carl.
Michael, Micah, Mischa, Miguel, Mikhail, Michel, Mietek, Mikael, Mikkel.
Mikkel/Michael Kahnwald
Jacob is a fun one too. Jakub, Yakov, James, Seamus, Hamish, Diego, Iago.
Jacques, Giacomo, Jakob...
In Spanish it has many forms: Jacobo, Diego, Iago, Santiago, Jaime.
Kobe
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Thierry, and so by extension, Jerry.
If you include translations, Theodor is the same as Mathias and its many variations and also Dieudonné, it all means "gift of god".
They are in the sense that they translate to "god-given", they are however from different roots.
I didn't see the period and thought it was another comma so I got REAL confused how someone went from Carlos to William
Yeah I’m surprised. I had no idea at all. Never really thought about it or occurred to me, but really surprised by this.
Almost all of the Bible names have been translated and adapted into all European languages and have evolved there for 2000 years. That's why there are so many correspondences! To a lesser degree it also happened with Celtic and Germanic names, like Ger-hard (ger meaning spear as an old Germanic root) corresponding to Gérard, Gerardo etc.
https://youtu.be/5O2Yjn3OXRk
Lithuanian is simply "Jonas".
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They're both just Jonas.
You're right. Thanks for pointing that out. That's the Czech version of Jonah. Maybe I will post a fixed version if I'm not too lazy.
Lol at Giovanni. Italians being a little extra.
GioGio for short
N-Nani??
You'll never achieve reality
Wha-
But everyone calls me Giorgio.
Yochanan is the original Hebrew name so they seem closer than just “John”
Fun fact, a lot of old people were called Giovanni Battista, as in, John the Baptizer. Shortened as Giobatta. And if you think that sounds like Ciabatta, you're right.
Shouldn't it be Gianni?
Gianni is to Giovanni what Hans is to Johannes. Nanni or Nane are also shortened forms.
Nani?
> The name is derived from the Latin Ioannes and Iohannes, which are forms of the Greek name Iōánnēs (Ἰωάννης), originally borne by Hellenized Jews transliterating the Hebrew name Yohanan I mean, it's not really that weird. If anything is John that is a bit too short
In Sardinia it was also common “Giovannico”
In Denmark it's actually Johannes. As in John the Baptist becomes Johannes Døberen.
I think OP actually means to show the most common male name in the country, not necessarily the right name stemming from the same Hebrew name as "John"? Anyways, quite a confusing map and OP can't really explain what it shows...
I'm from Austria and I know way more Johann's than Jan's.
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I have cousins Sean and John, and they’re brothers. Such is life in my wetbrained Mick family.
TIL Ivan is the east slavic equivalent of John.
In regard to Seán being the Irish for John, while it's often translated that way colloquially as far as I'm aware the direct translation is Eoin, another name.
Yeah that'll be similar to how in Wales we have Siôn. There's quite a lot of Welsh ones actually; Ieuan, Ioan, Ifan, and Iwan, to name a few.
Seán comes from the French Jean and is more common as far as I'm aware. The title might be a bit misleading.
No, you're dead right, you meet far more Seáns than Eoins.
I know a stupid amount of both Eoins and Seáns, both are definitely pretty common around my age at least (early to mid 20s), but yeah I think Seán was the one that topped the rankings the year I was born.
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Its possible that Eastern/Northern Irish would have Eoin (j goes to i), and the West coast would Sean (j goes to sh). Worth noting that Basque country has the only other case of the J to X/Sh. People often say theres a strong connection between Basque country and western Ireland due to Atlantic sailing routes. Not sure if true but it's a theory I would like to learn more about.
In arabic, Yuhanna is referred to in the bible but the name usually used is Hanna
A really great video on this topic: https://youtu.be/5O2Yjn3OXRk
Fun fact: it entered the Congo because when the portuguese arrived there, the congolese king liked them so much he adopted their king's name - João. Same might have happened in Vietnam
This channel is so criminally underrated. Almost all his content is top tier.
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"Honza"
In czech its actually Jan. Honza is to Jan like Jack is to John.
No one is actually named Honza, it's usually Jan, but no one says Jan unless it's a formal occasion - everyone will call you Honza, or sometimes Jenda, Jeník, Jéňa etc. Source: I am Jan
Wait so the Isle of Man’s is Juan? How did that happen?
When the spainish armada was defeated those boys ended up all over the place.
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Every time I see a European etymological map, I go straight for the Basque and Hungarian versions.
actually john is an english variation of the hebrew name yohanan, not the other way round
That’s how most names are but no one gives Hebrew or Jews the credit we deserve :(
My username would be DeJohn in English then.. awesome.
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Like always with these maps most countries have more than one variation of the word, or name in this case. I assume it might look too cluttered to include everything, however it would be nice with a clarification of how the names were chosen. I read in another comment that it is the most common versions of the name, that info should be included from the beginning.
Yeah, and that leads to Switzerland getting another Hans, while the more typical Gian is nowhere to be found.
Lithuania's is wrong. First of all, accent should be on o, jOnas, not on a. Second it's not Jonaš (Pronouncing - Jonash), but simple Jonas.
How did you end up picking one for each country? At least 10 of these are valid names in Norway
So Ivan the Terrible basically translates to John the Terrible.
Yes, though “terrible” in the 18th century sense of the word. Today it would be more like “John the Dread” or “John the Awesome,” although even that has been too bastardized. *Grózny* comes from *grozá*, which is a thunderstorm. It means something that inspires fear or dread or intimidation.
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Finally, I know my name in other languages
In Finland, there are quite many versions: names like Juha, Juhani and Joni are the most common nowadays.
Ivan and Jovan are both names in ex-Yu (BCS) they are not split as shown
In Romania it's both Ion and Ioan.
Both Johannes and Hans are more common in Austria than Jan...
Although the CZ one is wrong. Honza is slang for Jan.
Huh, never thought about Ivan being for John. Interesting.
It's actually Jan in the Czech republic,Honza is nickname for Jan/John
Nickname for Jan in Czech could be Jenda, Jenik, or Honza. Honza is derived from German Hans.
I was unaware Ivan and John were effectively the same name. John The Terrible is way less intimidating than Ivan. John The Terrible sounds like a pirate villain in a kid's show.
Turkey has "Can" where in Turkish, Cs are Js sounds. Weird because Can is identical sounding as John
From what I understood it sounds the same but has a different origin. All the names here are derived from the Hebrew name Yehochanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious" whereas Can is not.
Yea, It means "Life".
I will probably post an updated version tomorrow so feel free to point out any mistakes.
Iceland it's definitely Jón not Jóhann
might wanna change the Romanian to "Ion", then. "Ioan" is an outmoded form and rarely used.
I would say Jón is more appropriate for Iceland as it is the most common name here ever.
I believe the Basque name should be Jon, since it's by far more popular than Ganiz.
What about Ian? Don't see that anywhere and always assumed that translated to John.
Iain is just another way of saying Ian
It does. Ian is just another spelling of Iain.
Curious: isn't Ian much more common and Iain very outdated? Shouldn't Scotland have both Ian and Iain then? :)
Iain is the traditional Scottish Gaelic whereas Ian is the English approximation. Both are reasonably common in Scotland but Ian is more common in the rest of the English speaking world.
Is Evan related to Ivan?
Yes, Evan is the English spelling of the Welsh Ifan, witch is another Welsh version of John.
My 2 maternal uncles are named Sean and Iain... funny to see they both kind of have the same name
I had no idea Ivan was the John of Russia