I’m interested in how common names have been used across all the major European languages. How did this happen? Is there a common root in Latin or Greek?
Here are some more, please correct or augment as needed!
(English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian)
Peter, Pierre, Peter?, Pedro?, Pietro?, Piotr
Richard, Richard, Richard?, Ricardo?, ?, ?
Robert, Robert, ?, ?, ?, ?
I can’t answer your question, but you can add Sean, Evan and Jan to your list of Johns.
Very interesting question. I’m sure that Biblical names are among the most translated, but there must be other reasons, like the old “cultural diffusion.”
Michael is another one that goes across a lot of languages.
Michael, Michel, [I think it can be Michael or Michel in German], Miguel, Michele, Mikhail.
One more John-equivalent for you: Ian (Scottish).
I know that Etienne is french for Stephen, but I’d love to see other variations on that name.
Almost all other European countries adopted some form of Christianity and would have used mostly Latin bibles for hundreds of years. Their languages would certainly pick up on the Latin name and then “vulgarize” it into the common tongue.
I’ve seen a lot of variations on “Catherine”: Katheryn (English), Ekaterina (Russian), Catalina (Spain), among others. I suspect it came from women naming their daughters for Saint Catherine and for monarchs.
Stephanas (Greek); Stephanus (Latin); Etienne (French); Stephan (German); Stefano (Italian); Esteban (Spanish); Stepan (Russian); Stepka (Slavic); Stevan, Steven (English).
Is Sven a Nordic variant of Stephen?
No, Sven comes from Old Norse, predates the Christianization of Scandinavia, and isn’t a variant of Stephen.
An old trick you learn in high school French class: when a French word begins with an accented “E,” replace that E with an S, and you can usually guess what the English equivalent is.
Examples:
Ecole becomes scole, which is pretty close to school.
Etudiant becomes studiant, which is close to student.
Etage becomes stage, which is self-explanatory.
Well, Etienne become Stienne… which is close enough that you can guess it might mean Stephen.
Oh, as for the names’ roots:
In most Christian countries (especially Catholic ones), it was long a tradition to give your children the name of a saint. All of the Apostles and most of the early saints were Jews, so Hebrew Biblical names are at the root of many/most of the names that are common throughout what we used to call Christendom.
So, most of the names you cite come from Romanized versions of Hebrew names.
ioanna is russian for john. nickname usually is vanya.
Guinevere, Jennifer, Jenny, Gwen, Wendy.
Regarding the French version of Stephen…
We have a client in France named Stephané. Is that a “newer” version of Stephen for France or is the origin of his name perhaps not French?
And how bad is it to him when I reply to his emails saying “Dear Stephane,” instead of “Dear Stephané,”?
Are you sure the accent’s not on the first “e”? Making it Stéphane?
Because I’ve never ever seen that name with the accent on the end. Makes it sound more like Stephanie. I suppose it could be a new and unique way of spelling it, but I feel sorry for the guy, because people hearing his name will automatically think he’s a girl.
And despite my French Canadian background, this is the first time I’ve seen that Etienne = Stephen. I’ve always known Stéphane for Stephen, but the Etienne thing makes sense now that I’m thinking about it.
This just in… the name Stephen starts to look really weird when you see it written out so many times.
William, Guillaume, Wilhelm, Guillermo, Guglielmo, Liam (Gaelic)
How about my name? (in no particular order)
Joseph, Jose, Josef, Jozef, Guiseppe, Che
My dad told me that his name, Hans, is also a version of John.
Loosely derivative of John is Jack (else from Jacob), which has its own international equivalents:
Jack, Jacques, Yakov, Jacob, Giacomo, and quite a few others according to this site (warning 1-not for the seizure prone. warning 2-I truly doubt some of the names like, oh, the whole James digression at the end).