Mildly Interesting

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The name "John" has equivalents in more than 100 different languages (and plenty even in English) (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/mildlyinteresting

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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!

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I guess Everyone is John knew all along

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

That looks like a blast

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

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

[–] thefactremains 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Don't forget João & Xoán

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

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