J Names

I've blogged before about the frequency of names similar to mine and their meaning, but someone recently asked me to say more about that.

It can be a problem to have a common name.

Once I sent Facebook Friend requests to all the people named Janet Collins I saw listed there and got blocked for spam.

And people have confused me with others in the same community who have the same name as mine. Once I even went to pick up new glasses and discovered they'd given me the prescription for another Janet Ann Collins.

According to one baby name book I read, Colin means "dark one,"  but that doesn't mean dark in the sense of evil.  Long ago the Celtic people who lived in Ireland usually had fair skin, red hair, and freckles. When England destroyed the Spanish Armada some surviving Spanish sailors made it to the Irish shore. They intermarried and the resulting offspring tended to have dark hair and tan skin like their fathers because of dominant genes. But brunettes were uncommon so it was logical to call the baby boys a name that meant, dark one.

But other baby name books say that name, Colin, means "strong," or "young." Whichever books are correct, the "s" at the end of Collins means "son."

And Janet means "Gracious gift of God"  or "God is gracious."It's easy to see why so many cultures used versions of that name for their babies and modified it according to their own language.

Here's a list of variations of my first name:

For girls:
Jan, Jane, J'Ane, Jana, Janeen, Jayne, Janie, Jean, Jeanie, Jeanne, JoAnne, Johanna, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Joni, Jonie, Juanita, Vanya, Giovanna, Hanne, Ivanna, Janetta, Janette,  Janine, Janis, Janna, Janica, Jenetta, Jovanna, Juana, Nita, Vania, and Zaneta.

For boys:
John, Johnny, Johnnie, Jonny, Jack, Jonathan, Jon, Jay, Jock, Jan, Jean, Ian, Ivan, Evan, Ewan, Gian, Giovanni, Hans, Jackie, Jens, Jevon, Johan, Johann, Juan, Sean, Shaun, Shawn, Shane, and Zane.

I think that's all, but I could have missed some.

Do you know what your name means?