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What's up with Johan/Johann lately?
Johan has been on the USA top 1000 since the late 90s, and Johann made it onto the top 1000 very recently. Any ideas on why?Thanks in advance.----------------- § ♥ § -----------------
BtN's resident E. T. A. Hoffmann fan
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Like a lot of names on the US list, this probably is there largely because of Hispanics. Notice that the very first person that comes up when you Google Johan today is Johan Santana, a professional baseball player from Puerto Rico. It's a small sample, but there were three boys named Johan born in Nebraska in 2007 and two named Johann. Both of the Johanns and two of the three Johans were born to Hispanic mothers.
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More likely than not Johan received a boost due to Heidi Klum using it on her son. Other spellings tend to piggyback on the first one (just look at Bentley last year).

This message was edited 6/13/2011, 12:21 PM

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Heidi Klum
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Actually, Klum's son Johan was born in 2006, after the name started rising on the US popularity charts.
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I'm not sure, but it could be due to the Amish and similar groups with a Germanic/Scandinavian background. Barring that, I have no idea what would make Johan / Johann so popular.
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It is the Germanic/Scandinavian form of John. IMO a better form.
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