New English (?) name: Jhan

Tue Mar 22 12:35:38 UTC 2011

That's right! Jan Murray!  I used to watch him in black and white almost
every day during summer vacation and still didn't make the connection a mere
twenty years later when Jan Bakker showed up. I think his morning game show
was called "Treasure Hunt."

So my mind is no feebler now than it was then!  What a relief!

It seems to me today that even in the '50s I had a hard time accepting that
his name was really "Jan" (which suggested "Janet") even though it was only
one letter away from my own name. (Which on occasion has been pronounced
"Yon" by the severely benighted.)

My grandmother's name was Jeanette, which was always shortened to "Jean," so
no problem with that. But when I learned about Jean Paul Getty around 1964,
I thought that was quite bizarre.

JL

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 6:43 AM, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: New English (?) name: Jhan
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jan Matzelinger was the name of the black man who invented the
> shoe-lasting=
>  =0Amachine. According to Wiki, he was born in 1852=A0in Dutch Guyana to a
> =
> Dutch =0Aengineer father and a Surinamese slave mother. =0A=0AAlso, there
> w=
> as Jan Murray, a TV game show host in the '50's.=0A=A0=0A=A0=0A--Margaret
> L=
> ee=0A=0A=0A=0A=0A=0A________________________________=0AFrom: Victor
> Steinbo=
> k <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>=0ATo: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=0ASent: Mon, March
> 21=
> , 2011 10:28:49 PM=0ASubject: Re: New English (?) name: Jhan=0A=0ANothing
> d=
> ark about this--both Jan and Bakker are typical Dutch names.=0AJan used to
> =
> be one of the most popular names (think, John), but it's=0Abeen in decline
> =
> for some time. It's still popular, however, among=0AWestern Ukrainians
> (clo=
> ser to Poles than to Russians) and Latvians=0A(although the latter often
> sh=
> ows up with a suffix, as in Janis). I've=0Aencountered a few in the
> Netherl=
> ands, but I would not call it common, at=0Athis point. I know one man from
> =
> England and one from Australia named=0AJan, but one of them is ethnically
> P=
> olish and the other Dutch and the=0Aparents chose the names, in both
> cases,=
>  for cultural preservation=0Apurposes. One of them mentioned once that he
> h=
> ad considered changing it=0Ato Iain or Ian, but decided to keep it as is.=
> =0A=0AGiven the age of the "Jhan" in question (born "at least in the 70s),
> =
> my=0Aoriginal comment (Saffron)--as sarcastic as it was--still stands.
> I=0A=
> suspect counterculture rather than ethnicity is at play here.
> Will=0Asomeon=
> e ask?=0A=0AAs for masculine/feminine versions of Jan, I was probably just
> =
> as=0Asurprised to find Jean to be a woman as Jon was to find a male
> Jan.=0A=
> Prior to that, I had always assumed French origin and male Jean.
> Of=0Acours=
> e, that's wrong too, but for entirely different reasons. Still,=0AJhan,
> Jan=
> , Jhon, Jean--it's all the same... In fact, I was already in=0Acollege
> when=
>  I first encountered a female Jan--long after I was familiar=0Awith the
> mal=
> e Jan. My first assumption was that my classmate's full name=0Awas Janice,
> =
> but I was wrong about that too. It was just Jan.=0A=0A=A0 =A0 VS-)=0A=0AOn
> =
> 3/21/2011 9:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:=0A> On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 9:17 PM,
> =
> Jonathan Lighter=0A> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>=A0 wrote:=0A>> The first
> masc=
> uline "Jan" =C2 I ever heard of in English was the once=0A>>
> famous/infamou=
> s Jan Bakker.=0A> Stabbing in the dark, I'd guess that that name is
> ethnica=
> lly Dutch.=0A> Once upon a time, I was acquainted with a guy of Polish
> ance=
> stry whose=0A> first name was Jan. He was a "boyfriend-in-law": my
> girlfrie=
> nd's=0A> roommate's boyfriend. Hence, the relationship was so tenuous that
> =
> I've=0A> forgotten his surname.=0A>=0A> This masculine "Jan" is also
> unique=
>  in my experience. A WAG is that=0A> perhaps Jhan was originally "Jan,"
> and=
>  was motivated to modify the=0A> spelling in order to avoid being
> continual=
> ly mistaken for a woman,=0A> _Jan_ as a first name for a man being rare in
> =
> the U.S. BTW, isn't=0A> there a masculine Jan [Surname] associated with
> the=
>  magazine, Rolling=0A> Stone? He's also of apparent Dutch ancestry. And
> the=
> re was Jan who=0A> "loved music.=A0 _He_ loved singing. _He_ could play
> the=
>  noisy drum." A=0A> brief history of his musical endeavors was contained
> in=
>  the the second=0A> song that I learned in the first grade, right after
> Jum=
> p, Jim Crow.=0A> --=0A>
> -Wilson=0A=0A--------------------------------------=
> ----------------------=0AThe American Dialect Society -
> http://www.american=
> dialect.org=0A=0A=0A=0A
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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