Jonathan

English

Etymology

From Hebrew יְהוֹנָתָן (yehonatán) (Jehonathan) and יוֹנָתָן (yonatán) (Jonathan), both meaning “God gave [me]”; ("Jehovah has given"), apparently with influence from the Aramaic preference for the latter form. Jonathan is often incorrectly considered to be a variant of John.

Proper noun

Jonathan

1. A son of Saul, first mentioned in 1 Samuel.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible (Authorized Version), 1 Samuel 18:1:

     And it came to pass, when he had made an end to speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

2. A male given name of biblical origin.
   • 1936 Frank O'Connor, In The Train. The Stories of Frank O'Connor, Knopf, 1952. page 166:

     "Well indeed," said Foley, "'tis a mystery to me how the sergeant puts up with her. If any woman up and called me an outlandish name like Jonathan when everyone knew my name was plain John I'd do fourteen days for her - by God, I would, and a calendar month."

   • 1998 Barbara Vine, The Chimney Sweeper's Boy, ISBN 0670879274, page 168:

     So I'd change to names I really like. I mean, Jonathan. If I ever have a son I'm going to call him Jonathan, so I'd have that. And then I like monosyllabic surnames that aren't too common, so I'd have Dean or Bell or King. There you are, how about Jonathan King?

Related terms

• nonstandard spellings: Jonathon, Johnathan
• pet forms: Jon, Jonty, Jonny, Nathan

Translations

biblical character

• Armenian: Հովնաթան (Hovnat'an)
• Danish: Jonatan (da)
• Estonian: Joonatan (et)
• Faroese: Jónatan (fo) m
• Finnish: Jonatan (fi)
• French: Jonathan (fr)
• German: Jonathan (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: Ἰωνάθαν (Ionathan)

• Italian: Gionata (it)

• Korean: 요나단 (ko) (Yonadan)
• Maori: Honatana (mi)
• Norwegian: Jonatan (no)
• Russian: Ионафан (ru) (Ionafán) m 
• Scottish Gaelic: Ianatan (gd) m
• Swedish: Jonatan (sv)

male given name

• Armenian: Հովնաթան (Hovnat'an)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喬納森 (cmn)

• Danish: Jonathan (da)
• Estonian: Joonatan (et)
• Faroese: Jónatan (fo) m
• Finnish: Joonatan (fi)
• French: Jonathan (fr)

• German: Jonathan (de)
• Italian: Gionata (it)
• Norwegian: Jonathan (no)
• Russian: Джонатан (ru) (Džónatan) m  transliteration
• Scottish Gaelic: Ianatan (gd) m
• Swedish: Jonatan (sv)

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Danish

Proper noun

Jonathan

1. A male given name, the modern spelling of biblical Jonatan

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French

Proper noun

Jonathan

1. Jonathan (Biblical character)
2. A male given name

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German

Proper noun

Jonathan

1. Jonathan (Biblical character)
2. A male given name

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Norwegian

Proper noun

Jonathan

1. A male given name, a modern spelling of Jonatan

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Swedish

Proper noun

Jonathan

1. A male given name, a spelling variant of Jonatan