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User comments for John

Key: Meaning/History Usage Pronunciation Famous Bearer Personal Impression Other


I believe John is also a shortened version of Johnathon or Johnathan.
-- Anonymous User  8/12/2005
John means "A gift from God", despite the popularity of this name, it was a great meaning!
-- Miamaya  3/3/2006
John and Jonathan are etymologically unrelated.
-- Manfredo  3/14/2008
Derives from Greek: "Ιωαννης" deriving from "Ιων" and "Ιανος", who was the ancientest king of an ancient Greek colony in Italy. He also built a fortress on Rom's hill, the "Ianiculum". He was later deified, believing that he was son of Apollo and Kreusi, daughter of Athens' king Erehteus.
-- georgev1112  12/10/2012
This name is also used in The Netherlands, where the name is a firm top 1000 name. It's one of those names that became increasingly popular in the country after World War II (i.e. a real "baby boomer" name), due to the country having been liberated by the Allied Forces (most of them American, Australian, British and Canadian). A lot of the soldiers that the Dutch natives met during the liberation were named John (which was a top 5 name in English-speaking countries at the time), so the name enjoyed quite some exposure in the entire country and thus many Dutch parents were inspired to give this name to their son. Quite often it would not be the name on the birth certificate, however: a lot of parents would officially name their son Jan or Johannes (which would thus be the name on the child's birth certificate), but they would simply call him John in daily life. I know many of these "baby boomer" Johns in my immediate environment - one of them being my mother's brother, who was born in 1958 (and he is one of those Johns who has Johannes on his birth certificate, but is always called John in real life).

The pronunciation for John varies in The Netherlands and the reasons for why that is are a bit complicated. For more information about this matter, please read this detailed post that I once wrote regarding that:

The pronunciation that I have always encountered in my immediate environment is ZHON (somewhat influenced by the French pronunciation from Jean). That is a fairly southern pronunciation (and I am from the south), as in the north of the country the pronunciation is usually DYON or SHON. All three pronunciations are "dutchized" pronunciations (which I talked about in my aforementioned post), but all of them closely resemble the British pronunciation of John. They don't sound anywhere near the American pronunciation of John at all.

An example of the Dutch pronunciation can be heard here:

Finally, well-known Dutch bearers of this name are media tycoon John de Mol (b. 1955) and the former soccer player John de Wolf (b. 1962).
-- Lucille  1/11/2013
The English name came as many- from a mistake. The Bible was first printed in Germany. When it was translated into English the name remained in the german form. So John should have been translated Ion since J is pronounced as I in german and h is silent.
Ps: usually the simplest solution is the correct one;
-- nightcrawlercyp  5/22/2013

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