Message: "Can Anyone Tell Me?...Jathan"

Can Anyone Tell Me?...Jathan

by persteph

3/9/2006, 5:58 PM

I'm looking for the Origin, meaning, and spiritual connotation for the name "Jathan." Can anyone help me? I can't find it ANYWHERE!

This message was edited 3/9/2006, 6:16 PM

Replies

- little_kit +11

3/9/2006, 7:18 PM

Here you go

I found out that it means "gift of god" in Hebrew. Congratulations: it's a really rare name very seldom found.
P.S.
I had never heard this name before, but now I think it's awesome! I'm thinking about naming my future son that now. (Don't you feel special?) ;)

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans)

3/10/2006, 10:18 AM

IF Andy's source is correct in saying that Jathan is just a shortened form of Jonathan (an interpretation which seems very reasonable to me), then Jathan would go back to Hebrew words meaning "Yahweh has given", which is basically the same thing as "gift of God."

- Persteph (guest)

3/9/2006, 8:33 PM

To Little_kit . Re: Here you go

Thank you so much! That helps a whole bunch! I now have all the info I need. Yes, I do feel special. Best wishes to you and your future son Jathan. :)

- Chrisell +8

3/9/2006, 8:30 PM

Sources please . . .

Where did you get that information? We ask everyone who posts information that is not in the database to provide a source for their information, so that we know it is accurate. There are many inaccurate sites out there, and as this is an etymology site we want to make sure that information provided on this board is as accurate as possible.

♦ Chrisell ♦

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

- little_kit +7

3/10/2006, 2:38 PM

Yep, here's the source

I found it here:
http://www.babynameaddicts.com/html/names/male/male_j.html

- Ivayla +6

3/10/2006, 2:45 PM

Are you seriously...

quoting a site that lists the "name"

J'vonte?

~ Ivayla,
skillfully disguised as a responsible adult

This message was edited 3/10/2006, 3:39 PM

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +5

3/10/2006, 5:40 PM

Whether a site should be quoted depends on whether or not the etymologies and histories given are correct, not on whether or not it contains any particular name.

And J'vonte is a real name, given to real boys in the USA, so you shouldn't put "name" in quotes no matter how funny you think it is.

- Ivayla +4

3/10/2006, 6:13 PM

I disagree...

A site that exhibits a name like J'vonte, which is nothing more than random sounds (and an even more random apostrophe!) jammed together without any etymologic or linguistic significance, cannot be devoted to etymology. Therefore, it should not be trusted when it comes to etymology. Even if they lucked out with Jathan.

Edited to remove the quotes because I am really not in the mood to elaborate why J'vonte is not a name to me :D.

~ Ivayla,
skillfully disguised as a responsible adult

This message was edited 3/10/2006, 6:27 PM

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +3

3/11/2006, 4:18 PM

J'vonte has an etymology; it's just a recent etymology. It is an African-American blended name form typical of the late 20th century. It IS a name, whether you like it or not. Just because something has been created recently doesn't mean it has no "linguistic significance." It is of great significance in telling us how language is being used at the present time, and that is part of linguistics. Also, its creation is very far from being "random". It follows the sound patterns and spellings that are popular in urban African-American culture. There are certain syllables which are popular at certain times in the creation of new names in that community, with the great majority of the newly invented names following the present sound fashions and so being far from "random" in their origin.

This message was edited 3/11/2006, 4:22 PM

- Ivayla +2

3/11/2006, 6:34 PM

Well, unless you consider the so called Ebonics a language, urban African-Americans speak English. With that random (yes, random!) apostrophe J'vonte goes against the general spelling rules of English; the beginning "jv" sound combination is also not found in English. Admittedly, English is my second language, but I cannot see what English word or element J'vonte is derived from. So, I stand by my words -- J'vonte is a group of random sounds with no etymologic or liguistic significance. Maybe it has a sociologic or phychologic or some other significance, but that's another topic.

~ Ivayla,
skillfully disguised as a responsible adult

- Pavlos (guest)

3/13/2006, 12:33 AM

Names like J'vonte and Condoleezza are pretty tame compared to etymological gems such as OrangeJello, LemonJello (pronounced o-RON-juh-lo and le-MON-juh-lo, respectively) and even Shithead (pronounced shutEED), which are discussed in the book "Freakonomics" by Stephen Levitt.

- Lumia

3/12/2006, 4:56 AM

I'm agree

I cannot speak for English language, obviously, but in Spanish, Catalan, French, Occitan, Basque... all languages with a language academy that gives the rules (spelling, syntax, etc.), a "name" (or a word, or a text) which brokes the rules... is not a Spanish/Catalan/French/Occitan/Basque... name, perhaps a misspelling, perhaps a name in another language... but not a Spanish/etc. name.

So, for example, Yuridys, Yessica, Marbellys, Gustabo, Alfonzo, Jiomar... are not (and they can not be) Spanish names (they break the rules of Spanish language). Perhaps "names" used by Spanish speaking people, but "names" that indicate ignorance of Spanish rules (and in Spanish, misspellings are cosiderated illiteracy signs, not creativeness signs).

Note 1: the rules of RAE (Real Academia Española de la Lengua) are mandatory for ALL Spanish speaking people (in Spain, in America, in Morocco, in the Moon...).

Note 2: I choosed the Spanish example, and not a Catalan or Basque example, because the misspellings and made-up names are more usual and it can be more clear for most of you.

Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +5

3/9/2006, 6:26 PM

Jathan is a name metioned in passing in the Book of Tobit, which is part of the Old Testament in Roman Catholic Bibles and part of the Apocrypha in Protestant Bibles. All that is said in that reference is that Jathan was a descendant of the prophet Shemaiah. I have not been able to find any information about its original meaning in Hebrew, if any.

- Andy ;—) (guest) +3

3/9/2006, 10:47 PM

Googling araound a bit, I found this:

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

JATHAN

ja'-than (Iathan; Nathan):
For "Jonathas" in the King James Version, which is the Latin form for the Hebrew "Jonathan." Jonathan was brother of Ananias and "son of that great Sammaias" (Tobit 5:13).

http://arabic.studylight.org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T4872

http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/J/JATHAN/

So JATHAN seems to be a contraction of JONATHAN, maybe influenced by king JOTHAM who is sometimes spelled JOTHAN. JA and JO are to some degree interchangeable with Hebrew names. But this last bit is just a vague theory.

I have tried to find the name Jathan in the verse mentioned above - but without success. Neither in the Septuagint (which has two parallel texts) nor in Vulgate. So I cannot really back it up that way.

- persteph (guest)

4/3/2006, 11:56 AM

thanks a bunch

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +1

3/10/2006, 10:08 AM

Checking my New Revised Standard Version, it has the last sentence in verse 14, Chapter 5 of Tobit as:

For I knew Hananiah and Nathan.

There is a footnote on "Nathan", and the footnote reads:
"Other ancient authorities read Jathan or Nathamiah."

So this is a place where translators get to take their choice, and there must be some translations that use Jathan instead of Nathan in that verse.

- persetph (guest)

4/3/2006, 11:54 AM

Thank you so much.

- persteph

3/9/2006, 6:29 PM

Thank you. Any other info you find would be most appreciated. Did you say you think it's a Hebrew name? And do you know where it is mentioned in the Bible?

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