Help with a Name

[Jayson]

Hi all

I was looking at some sixteenth century handwriting & saw this name "Johan".  Is this an old spelling for Jane?

Jayson

[stanmapstone]

These are the usual Latin names
Jana = Jane
Johannes = John   
Joanna   = Joan
Johanna   = Joan   
See http://freereg.rootsweb.com/howto/latinnames.htm
Stan

[Jayson]

Thank you very much for your reply, Stan. Jayson

[Maggott]

I've seen it as a poss spelling for Joan
Maggott

[Cell]

Hi,

I've known of a few people  ( males)with this name in today's times ( from outside the UK)

 This is from behind the name website,
Quote:

" JOHAN 
Gender: Masculine

Usage: Scandinavian, German, Czech

Pronounced: YO-hahn (German)
 
Scandinavian, Low German and Czech form of Johannes (see JOHN)"

( JOHANNES 
Gender: Masculine

Usage: German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Finnish, Estonian, Late Roman

Pronounced: yo-HAH-nes (German), yo-HAHN-nus (Dutch)   [key]
 
Ancient Latin form of Ioannes (see JOHN). The astronomer Johannes Kepler and the composer Johannes Brahms are famous bearers of this name)

http://www.behindthename.com/name/johan

Hope that is of some help:)

[Christopher]

You beat me to it Cell and gave a lot more detail I inteded to mention Johann Sebastian Strauss

Christopher

[JAP]

Hello Jayson,

I have come across Johan many many times as a female name in early records (not a Latinization - as you will see if you check out whole batches which include this name; those I have looked at are not batches where names have been rendered into a sort of effort at Latin).

I have always taken it to be a spelling of the name Joan (as Maggott said).

This being the case, I have just checked it out in the IGI.

Go to the IGI, enter Johan in the First Name box, select British Isles as the region and tick exact spelling.
You will see there are hundreds of early females named Johan.

Now, instead, enter Joan in the First Name box, select British Isles as the region and tick exact spelling.
There are plenty of those also!

Regards,

JAP

[Jayson]

Hi Jap

I had another look at the parish registers (Audlem, Cheshire) & noticed that the name Johan (used as a female name) appears much more frequently than Joan.  I don't know why I should have confussed Johan with Jane which also appears in the parish register less frequently. 

Jayson