Map Enthusiasts

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"

Mary-Joan?

I knew a Juan growing up. He didn't look anything like a Juan. He was more middle eastern looking, and I came to find out years later that he'd been adopted by a Spanish couple as a baby, and that he'd been born in Egypt. When he found out he was adopted he became really interested in learning about it more, and turns out he actually had an identical twin named Amal! I guess the twin stayed in Egypt.

Anywho, they actually got to meet up after years of planning, which I thought was really cool. They had a really touching reunion and bonded pretty quickly, at least from the outside looking in. I felt pretty special getting to see it, cause Juan didn't have a ton of close friends outside of me.

When our other classmates (this is in high school by now) found out about the reunion and that it wasn't bigger news around the school, or that they didn't get to meet Amal there was some backlash.

I tried to cool everyone down by telling them that they are identical twins, if you've seen Juan you've seen Amal.

St John's wort probably

The English Bible itself is a translation. It didn't say John in the originals.

The name is ultimately derived from the Biblical Hebrew name יוחנן (pronounced [joχanan]), short for יהוחנן (pronounced [jehoχanan]), meaning "God was merciful".

It's dependent on the translation what they decide to use.

San Juan, ofc. A local festivity where we gather old papers in a pile and torch them.

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.

Yes. This is most correct but the map is made for English speakers where John is what is ubiquitously known and most people don't understand the biblical origins.

Makes sense, as the German short variant Hans is stated as well which is also used in compound names.

It is not very accurate though.

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.

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.

Interesting, we have all the same names in Denmark.

It's quite similar in sound to the French Jean, you just have to ignore the spelling because the rules for Irish, French, and English all do it differently

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. 😅

I guess that's why all of those names share the same colour. We're one family.

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.

It doesn’t explain why Lovejoy calls him Jonathan though, as that’s a different name entirely.

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".