Why Is Jack A Nickname Of John? | Dictionary Of Medieval Names ...

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← How do you get Peggy from Margaret? Mystery Monday: Obergia → by Sara L. Uckelman | January 28, 2017 · 9:48 am ↓ Jump to Comments Why is Jack a nickname of John?

Continuing our series of posts where we answer questions we’ve received (usually via FB), here we devote a post to the question of why Jack is a nickname of John and not Jacob. After all, the only letters that Jack and John have in common are J- — not much of a connection! For answering this question, we can do no better than quote Withycombe, s.n. Jack. We’ve added a few extra comments [in brackets]:

[Jack], the commonest pet-name for John, has caused a good deal of difficulty owing to the natural assumption that it must be derived from the French Jacques and should therefore logically represent James rather than John. The problem was cleared up by E. W. B. Nicholson in a little book entitled The Pedigree of Jack and of Various Allied Names (1892). He showed that there is no recorded instance of Jack, Jak, Jacke, or Jakke ever being used to represent Jacques or James, and that no statement in favor of the French connexion has been produced from any early writer. He then proceeded to elucidate and illustrate with examples the development of Johannes [the standard Latin nominative form] to Jehan [the standard Old and Middle French oblique form] and Jan [the standard Middle Dutch form], whence, by addition of the common suffix -kin [a uniquely English suffix], we get Jankin, which as a result of French nasalization becomes Jackin [this is the same nasalization that gets us Harry from Henry], and was finally shortened to Jack. There was a similar development from Jon to Jock (the Scottish form of the name).

Not much to say beyond that! Except that we do not have access to Nicholson’s little book ourselves, and would dearly love a copy. If anyone has one they could spare…

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Tagged as diminutives, Dutch, English, French, Henry, Jacob, John, Latin

← How do you get Peggy from Margaret? Mystery Monday: Obergia →

10 responses to “Why is Jack a nickname of John?”

1. mymindlessdrivel January 28, 2017 at 5:04 pm

   Looks like you can get a free ebook of it here: https://books.google.com/books?id=FTjQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA372&lpg=PA372&dq=The+Pedigree+of+Jack+and+of+Various+Allied+Names&source=bl&ots=Sw9LaGzCIf&sig=JZvS0WY6uVqT5OaDZHA4zP2sVi4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOhKnrqOXRAhVnr1QKHVR8DBIQ6AEIKjAE#v=onepage&q=The%20Pedigree%20of%20Jack%20and%20of%20Various%20Allied%20Names&f=false

   Reply
   • Sara L. Uckelman January 29, 2017 at 1:02 pm

     Alas, not from the UK! “No ebooks available” it says.

     Reply
     • mymindlessdrivel January 29, 2017 at 8:49 pm

       Ah, sorry about that.

     • Andy B March 17, 2023 at 3:06 am

       This book was written by William Swan Sonnenschein, who died in 1931. Under British copyright law (life of author + 70 years), the copyright expired in 2001. I suspect Google just didn’t want to deal with the multiplicity of copyright rules in different countries, but I’ll send the PDF to anyone who wants it.

2. Pingback: Traditional names are still the most popular | Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources

3. Pingback: The reference for the name Jack along with the letter J shows up in quite a few places within the Zodiac’s cards. – Zodiac Killer Revealed

4. Dawn July 28, 2021 at 7:09 pm

   abe books is selling a copy here: https://www.abebooks.com/pedigree-Jack-allied-names-Edward-Nicholson/30685423217/bd

   Reply
5. Richard Scott April 2, 2023 at 12:49 am

   WTF???

   Reply

6. Pingback: Who is Jack – Under The Moonlight

7. Jack Walsh August 10, 2024 at 11:22 pm

   I was born Catholic in 1959 and the rules of the Church were that you could not be baptized in any name other than a Saints name. Since there was no Saint Jack (until me 🙂 ), those who wanted to name their child Jack had to officially name them John. I.e. John/Jack Kennedy. This rule was later changed where today you can name your son Jack in the church.

   Reply

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