Joan (given name)
![]() Joan of Arc was largely responsible for the popularity of the name Joan for girls in the English-speaking world in recent years. | |
Pronunciation | English: /dʒoʊn/ Catalan, Valencian, Occitan: IPA: [(d)ʒuˈan] |
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Gender | Female (for Anglosphere name);
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Origin | |
Word/name | Hebrew |
Meaning | The Lord is gracious |
Other names | |
Related names | Female:
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Joan (/dʒoʊn/) is a feminine form of the personal name John given to females in the Anglosphere. It is the native masculine form of John (for males) in the Catalan-Valencian and Occitan languages, (pronounced [(d)ʒuˈan]). In both cases, the name is derived from the Greek via the Latin Ioannes and Ioanna (or Johannes and Johanna), and is thus cognate with John and related to its many forms, including its derived feminine forms.
The name was disseminated widely into many languages and cultures from the Greek name Ἰωάννης (romanised, Iōannēs), along with its feminine form Ἰωάννα (romanised, Iōanna).[1]: 144 [2] Its ultimate origin, as with John, is from the Hebrew Yohanan (יוֹחָנָן),[a] "Graced by Yah", or Yehohanan (יְהוֹחָנָן), "Yahweh is Gracious".[3]
The Anglosphere female name Joan entered the English language through the Old French forms, Johanne and Jehanne, female variants of the male name Johannes.[1]: 356
Still in use in Catalan, Valencian and Occitan as a masculine name, its feminine counterpart in these languages is Joana.In Spanish it is "Juana" [xuˈana] Joan and Joam were historically also the main forms in medieval Portuguese (or Galician-Portuguese). The Lusophone world later diverged in adopting João (pronounced [ʒuˈɐ̃w]) as its native form of John, while Joana, as in Catalan and Occitan, remains the female form for Portuguese speakers.[4]
List of figures named Joan
People and fictional characters named Joan include:
Women
Medieval period
- Saint Joan (disambiguation)
- Joan of Arc (c. 1412–1431), French Roman Catholic saint and martyr
- Joan I (disambiguation)
- Joanna of Constantinople (c. 1199–1244), Countess of Flanders
- Joan of England (disambiguation)
- Joan of France (disambiguation)
- Joan of Habsburg (disambiguation)
- Joan of Naples (disambiguation)
- Joan of Navarre (disambiguation)
- Joan of Portugal (disambiguation)
- Joan of Scotland (disambiguation)
- Joan of Valois (disambiguation)
- Joan, Lady of Wales (1188–1237), wife of Llywelyn the Great, the Prince of Wales, and daughter of King John of England
- Joan of Acre (1272–1307) daughter of Edward I of England
- Joan, Countess of Blois (died 1292)
- Joan the Lame (1293–1348), first Queen consort of Philip VI of France
- Joan of Lancaster (1310–1345)
- Joan of Lusignan (died 1322)
- Joan, Duchess of Brittany (1319–1384)
- Joan of The Tower (1321–1362), first Queen consort of David II of Scotland
- Joan of Kent (1328–1385), Princess of Wales, "the fair maid of Kent", wife of Edward the Black Prince and mother of King Richard II of England
- Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (c. 1379–1440), daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, wife of Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Robert Ferrers, 5th Baron Boteler of Wem
- Joan of Spain (1535–1573), Infanta of Spain
Modern era
- Joan Allen (born 1956), American film actress
- Joan Anim-Addo, Grenadian-born academic, poet, playwright and publisher
- Joan Armatrading (born 1950), British singer
- Joan Baez (born 1941), American singer-songwriter
- Joan Barclay (1914–2002), American actress
- Joan Barnett (1945–2020), American casting director and television executive producer
- Joan Bennett (1910–1990), American actress
- Joan Benoit (born 1957), American marathon runner
- Joan Bielski (1923–2012), Australian activist
- Joan Blackman (born 1938), American actress
- Joan Blondell (1906–1979), American actress
- Joan Cather (1882–1967), British suffragette
- Joan Caulfield (1922–1991), American actress
- Joan Chandler (1923–1979), American actress
- Joan Collins (born 1933), English actress and author
- Joan Ganz Cooney (born 1929), American television producer
- Joan Cooper (social worker) (1914–1999), English civil servant and social worker
- Joan Crawford (1904/8–1977), American actress
- Joan Crossley-Holland (1912–2005), English gallery owner and potter
- Joan Cusack (born 1962), American actress
- Joan Davis (1907–1961), American actress and comedian
- Joan Didion (1934–2021), American writer
- Joan Dowling (1928–1954), British actress
- Joan Feynman (1927–2020), American astrophysicist
- Joan Bamford Fletcher (1909–1979), Canadian member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
- Joan Fontaine (1917−2013), British-American actress
- Joan Gould (born 1927), American author and journalist
- Joan Greenwood (1921−1987), English actress
- Joan Grounds (1939–2010), American-born Australian artist
- Joan Haanappel (born 1940), Dutch former figure skater and sports presenter
- Joan Hackett (1934–1983), American actress
- Joan B. Hague, American politician
- Joan Hansen (born 1958), American long-distance runner
- Joan Harnett (born 1943), New Zealand netball player and real estate agent
- Joan Hickson (1906–1998), English actress
- Joan Higginbotham (born 1963), American astronaut
- Joan Hotchkis (1927–2022), American actress
- Joan Jara (born 1927), British-Chilean dancer and widow of Víctor Jara
- Joan Jefferson Farjeon (1913–2006), English scenographer and scenic designer
- Joan Jett (born 1958), American musician
- Joan O. Joshua (1912–1993), English veterinary surgeon, dog breeder and feminist
- Joan Kennedy (disambiguation)
- Joan Marie Laurer (1969–2016), American pornographic actress, bodybuilder, model, and former professional wrestler Chyna
- Joan Lawson (1907–2002), English ballet dancer and writer
- Joan Leemhuis-Stout (born 1946), Dutch politician
- Joan Le Mesurier (1931–2021), English actress and author
- Joan Leslie (1925–2015), American actress
- Joan Lin (born 1953), Taiwanese actress
- Joan Lindsay (1896–1984), Australian author, best known for her novel Picnic at Hanging Rock
- Joan Littlewood (1914–2002), English theatre director
- Joan Lunden (born 1950), American journalist, author and television presenter
- Joan Moriarty (1923–2020), British nursing administrator
- Joan O'Malley, Canadian civil servant
- Joan Onyemaechi Mrakpor, Nigerian politician
- Joan Orenstein (1923–2009), Canadian actress
- Joan Osborne (born 1962), American singer-songwriter
- Joan Plowright (born 1929), English actress
- Joan Redwing, materials scientist and professor at Pennsylvania State University
- Joan Regan (1928–2013), English singer
- Joan Rivers (1933–2014), American comedian, talk show host and businesswoman
- Joan R. Rosenblatt (1926–2018), American statistician
- Joni Robbins (born Joan Eva Rothman), American voice actress
- Joan Shakespeare (1569–1646), sister of William Shakespeare
- Joan Silber (born 1945), American writer
- Joan Sims (1930–2001), English actress
- Joan Micklin Silver (1935–2020), American film director
- Joan Staniswalis (1957–2018), American statistician
- Joan Steinbrenner (1935–2018), American vice-chair of the New York Yankees baseball team
- Joan Sutherland (1926–2010), Australian opera singer
- Joan Tewkesbury (born 1936), American film and television director and screenwriter
- Joan Tower (born 1938), American composer
- Joan Vass (1925-2011), American fashion designer.
- Joan Wexler (born 1946), American Dean and President of Brooklyn Law School
- Joan Wyndham (1921–2007), British writer and memoirist
Men
- John (knez) or Joan, a cneaz in Wallachia around 1247
- Joan Blaeu (1596–1673), Dutch cartographer
- Joan Boada, Cuban ballet dancer
- Joan Capdevila (born 1978), Spanish footballer
- Joan Comorera (1894–1958), Spanish communist politician
- Joan Cornellà (born 1981), Spanish cartoonist and illustrator
- Joan Daemen (born 1965), Belgian cryptographer and inventor of Rijndael
- Joan Ignasi Elena (born 1968), Catalan politician
- Joan Gamper (1877–1930), Swiss-born Spanish footballer and businessman most famous as the founder of FC Barcelona
- Joan Gaspart (born 1944), Spanish businessman and president of FC Barcelona (2000–2003)
- Joan Laporta (born 1962), Spanish lawyer and president of FC Barcelona (2003–2010)
- Joan Llaneras (born 1969), Spanish track cyclist
- Joan Majó (born 1938), Spanish politician
- Joan Martorell (1833–1906), Spanish architect
- Joan Mir (born 1997), Spanish motorcycle racer
- Joan Miró (1893–1983), Spanish artist
- Joan Oumari (born 1988), Lebanese footballer
- Joan Ribó (born 1947), Spanish politician
- Joan Roca i Fontané (born 1964), Spanish chef
- Joan Sebastian (1951–2015), Mexican vocalist
- Joan Manuel Serrat (born 1943), Spanish songwriter
- Joan Villadelprat, Former Operations Director and Team Manager at Benetton Formula
- Joan Verdú (born 1983), Spanish footballer
- Joan Voûte (1879–1963), Dutch astronomer
- Joan van der Waals (1920–2022), Dutch physicist
- Joan Adon (born 1998), MLB pitcher for Washington Nationals
Fictional characters
- Pope Joan, 9th century legend
- Joan Ferguson (Wentworth), a character from the TV series Wentworth
- Joan Watson, a character from the TV series Elementary, played by Lucy Liu
- Sow Joan, an Animal Crossing series character
- Lt. Joan Dark, a character from the 2019 film Doom: Annihilation
- Joan Lawson, a character from Small Wonder, played by Marla Pennington
- Joan Holloway, Mad Men character
- Joan Clayton, a character from the TV series Girlfriends, played by Tracee Ellis Ross
- The clone of Joan of arc is a main character in Clone high
See also
- All Wikipedia pages starting with "Joan..."
- Darby and Joan, expression for a happily married couple who led a placid, uneventful life
- Joanie
Explanatory notes
References
- ^ a b Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006), A dictionary of first names, Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1
- ^ Yonge, Charlotte Mary (1884). History of Christian Names. London: Macmillan. pp. 189–191.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 432. .
- ^ Brown, A.; Grim, G.; Le Get, R.; Shiel, N.; Slíz, M.; Uckelman, J.; Uckelman, S.L. (2021). "John". In Uckelman, S.L. (ed.). The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources. dmnes.org.
- Articles containing Biblical Hebrew-language text
- Articles containing Latin-language text
- Articles containing Koinē Greek-language text
- Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text
- Articles with short description
- All set index articles
- Given names
- English feminine given names
- Dutch masculine given names
- Catalan masculine given names
- Unisex given names