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How to say "John" in Europe
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this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Why does only Germany get both Johann and Hans?
In Estonian, in addition to the listed Jaan, we commonly have Johann, Johannes, Jan, Hans, which are all derived from the same original name as the English John. I would imagine other languages do the same.
Or if we're just talking about the biblical John, then it would be Johannes for Estonian.
Yes, it's the same in German. There are many different forms. And it's interesting that even the spelling is often identical.
In German, there are the following variants: Johann, Johannes, Jan, Yannick, Jens, Hans, Hänsel (old form, known from the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel"), Hannes and Henning.
And the German biblical name is Johannes, too.
Oh right I completely forgot about Hannes, very common here too. Honestly there must be more variants I straight up forgot.
Hell not all of them are male names even. There's Johanna too.
Interesting, we have all the same names in Denmark.