I had a classmate named Yannis back in the day. He had two brothers, named Jonas and Juan. Sometimes I wonder what his parents were smoking.
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tbf if your name's "John", it will stay John
I have a "weird" name
So I normally just say my name is John if I'm interacting with someone I'll probably never meet again
I did not know that my brother, with a similarly "weird" name, practices this exact same technique until he told the Starbucks barista that his name was John.
Thinking on my feet, I said my name was "uhh, Smith"
In italian there is also the shorter version "Gianni", which is important because it produces a plethora of double names like Gianluigi, Gianfranco and so on
On the women side there is Giovanna, Gianna but no double combinations
I love this! Do more names! :D
It's not true at all though... John is one name, the ones written here are just other (similar) names. Same as some people being named Alex and others Alexander. In Swedish John and Johan are both very common and never used interchangeably, and I'm very sure it's the same everywhere else. This whole post is just dumb.
Johan, Jens, John, Johannes, Hans are all forms of that name in Denmark.
This map is not very accurate.
So Sean is apparently John. Go the fook home Ireland, you've had tae much.
In my country, foreign people are called by their real name, not the local one.
What this map means is that it's the local version of the name. Every name on this map evolved gradually from the Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yochanan). The Greeks turned it into Ioannis, then the Romans got it from them and turned it into Iohannes, then in England it became Johannes, and then over time in England it became Johan and then John. Meanwhile, over in Russia, they went from Hebrew Yochanan > Greek Ioannis > Russian Ioanna > Russian Ivan. They sound different now, but they are both "the name of those two important guys in the bible"
In Hungary the name of kings, queens, popes are translated, everyone else stays the same. Non latin script names have a special latinization rules what is very different from English, so it's hard to search for people if you know only their Hungarian name.
In the 19th century and early 20th century they also translated the names of authors and poets, that's whx here everyone calls Jules Verne as Verne Gyula.
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.
Everything on the map is a derivation of the biblical Hebrew name Yochanan. It just evolved differently in different places
Ivan is the Slavic relative of the Latin name Johannes, corresponding to English John and originates from New Testament Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs). The Greek name is in turn derived from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yôḥānān), meaning "YHWH (God) is gracious". The name is ultimately derived from the Biblical Hebrew name יוחנן (pronounced [joχanan]), short for יהוחנן (pronounced [jehoχanan]), meaning "God was merciful". Common patronymics derived from the name are Ivanović (Serbian and Croatian), Ivanov (Russian and Bulgarian), and Ivanovich (Russian, used as middle name), corresponding to "Ivan's son".
Norway is wrong. Jon and even John (pronounced Yohn) are in common use and closer.
I'm guessing, it's not trying to find the closest commonly used names in each country, but rather just names which have the same etymological roots as John, while being sort of "at home" in those specific countries. So, it might be that you guys later imported Jon and John from England, for example. But I am just spitballing that last part. 😅
There's so many more ways than that. Every country has alternate versions. For example German with Hans and Czech with Honza. UK has Ian, Ewan , and more.
Lo siento mucho pero esto es cómo se dice Juan en toda Europa. No conozco ningún John, que inventadas los gringos.
El nombre viene del hebreo Yohanan, tanto John como Juan son bastante diferentes en realidad. Joanes del vasco de parece mas aunque el mapa ponga Ion (que está mal, es Jon. Osea, si alguien lo quiere con i vale, pero los comunes son Jon y Joanes).
Que ganas de criticar por criticar dios mío.
I enjoy Ghjuvanni. You'd think that consonant salad would come from Wales or Finnland or Hungary or such, but nope, leave that one up to Corsica. 🙃
And now it makes sense to me why in John Wick whatsername calls him Jordani.
I'm trying to find two that don't use any of the same letters. I'm thinking Xoa`n of Joa~o might be good starting points. For added difficulty, accents and tildes do not count. yet. this is hard.
yahya and jens. got it
argument: yahya and jennifer are the same name. source: my ass
Wtf northern Spain?
Also wales and Ireland surprised me, I had assumed those were different named
Iain and John are distinct names that are both in use in Scotland.
They are, but they're both forms of the same original name. Iain came via our Gaelic-speaking areas and John via our English- and Scots-speaking ones
The title says "How to say "John" in Europe".
How we say John in Scotland is John, not Iain.
I know, it's a bad title. I'm just explaining what it's actually showing
That said, if you go to one of the remaining Gàidhlig-speaking areas, there actually is a chance that they'd switch "John" to "Iain". See here, for example, where BBC Alba refers to the First Minister as Iain Sweeney
Nope. John is John. Johann is a rather old-fashioned name. Hans is Hans. All different.
The bible disagrees with you. John is Johannes which is shortened to Johann or Hannes which is shortened to Hans. I've never heard about a John in Germany. Jens and Jan are very common in northern Germany
Who asked that old Book? There's no female version of my name in there either but real it exists.
And about John: yep, they usually talk english. But they are here.
That old book is the source for many if not most common names in the western world, i would say it has more value to this discussion then a opinion from someone who doesn't know that Johannes turned into Hans over the centuries.
John would be pronounced very different in german, with a long o, to my ears that would sound Scandinavian and we have Jan for that.
There's both names now. And it's a while ago since that book was taken that seriously; language changes. And i didn't state a opinion, but what you hear around here, what is. Btw, my niece is named Linn. Does that sound german to you?
You do realise we're in a thread about etymology right?
Your nice has a beautiful name that might be a shortened form of Sieglinde or Linda, but i would take a wild guess that she's a german girl who's family roots are in eastern asia.
You do realise we're in a thread about etymology right?
Uh, no, i saw it in c/all. My bad.
who's family roots are in eastern asia.
Nope. But internet and airplanes changed things. Which is what i tried to say before.
But a scandinavian origin (the name), i didn't thought of that, thanks.
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