Janes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Janes is a fairly rare family name amongst those of English descent. Its root is believed to be from the possessive of 'Jan', 'John' or 'Ian'. In England the name appears to have its densest roots in the East End of London though now migration has spread it across the country and the English-speaking world.
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[edit] Origin [1]
- English: patronymic from the personal name Jan (see Jayne).
- Czech (Janeš): from a pet form of the personal name Jan, a vernacular form of Greek Iōannēs (see John).
Equivalents exist in other languages, most often in pronunciation rather than spelling e.g. Ianes, Eanes, Janeš. One distinguished example is General António dos Santos Ramalho Eanes, President of Portugal from 1976 to 1982.
[edit] Derivatives
"Jane" is also an extremely common Anglo-Saxon first-name and occasionally surname. It is common for the forms "Janes"-plural; "Jane's"-possessive and "Janes"-corrupted possessive to occur. The omission of punctuation in Internet references has made the last form increasingly common in recent years. The most often found example being the publishers of the definitive reference manual All the World's Fighting Ships, Jane's Information Group, who own many 'janes.xxx' domain names.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4