102
The name "John" has equivalents in more than 100 different languages (and plenty even in English) (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 month ago by smeg@feddit.uk to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It started with Yochanan (Hebrew) -> Ioannis (Greek) -> Johannes (Mediaeval Latin) -> Jon (Middle English), but now every language seems to have a version, e.g.

  • Hans
  • Joanna
  • Hanna
  • Jan
  • Ivan/Ivanka
  • Vanja
  • Jens
  • Sean/Shaun/Shawn/Shane
  • Joan/Jane/Jean/Janis
  • Evan/Ewan
  • Jock/Jack
  • Ian/Iain/Ianto
  • Juan
  • Yiannis/Gianna
  • Gianni/Giovanni/Vanni/Giovanna
  • Jonas
  • Ivo/Iva
  • Eoin/Owen
  • Seonaid/Siubhan

and those are just the ones I've heard used, there are hundreds more!

top 7 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] smeg@feddit.uk 15 points 1 month ago

I guess Everyone is John knew all along

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

That looks like a blast

[-] ptz@dubvee.org 12 points 1 month ago

Does that mean John Hannah is really just "Jon Jon" ?

[-] thefactremains@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Don't forget João & Xoán

[-] frosty99c@midwest.social 7 points 1 month ago

Jacob is similar. It is derived from an old Hebrew names and there are a ton of variants (including James and Diego)

[-] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

Jean, maybe even Yann, which might be a Breton (from brittany) version of John.

[-] Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There's also a bunch of female names taken from the various forms of John, like Juana or Jeanne in Spanish and French

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
102 points (96.4% liked)

Mildly Interesting

17356 readers
36 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
marcar@lemmy.world
WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world
Jimbabwe@lemmy.ml
Terevos@lemm.ee