Joan (given name)

Joan (female English name: /dʒoʊn/; male Catalan name: [(d)ʒuˈan]) is both a feminine form of the personal name John given to girls in the Anglosphere as well as the native masculine form of John in the Catalan-Valencian and Occitan languages. 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 Koine Greek: Ἰωάννα, romanized: Iōanna (romanised, Iōanna). Its ultimate origin, as with John, is from the Hebrew Yohanan (יוֹחָנָן), "Graced by Yah", or Yehohanan (יְהוֹחָנָן), "Yahweh is Gracious". The Anglosphere female name Joan entered the English language through the Old French forms, Johanne and Jehanne, female variants of the male name Johannes. In Catalan-Valencian and Occitan, Joan (pronounced [(d)ʒuˈan]) has been in continuous use as the native, masculine form of John since at least the Middle Ages. Its feminine counterpart in these languages is Joana. Historically, Joan and Joam were also the main forms of John in medieval Portuguese (or Galician-Portuguese). The Lusophone world later diverged in adopting João ([ʒuˈɐ̃w]) as its native form of the masculine John, while Joana, as in Catalan and Occitan, remains the female form for Portuguese speakers. Below are lists of people and fictional characters named or known as Joan.