Zane - varient of John?
I'm trying to learn more about the history of the name Zane. I looked it up on this website, it just says it was a surname.But when I look on the wonderful world wide web, all the sites I looked at says that Zane is a varient of John and means "glorious gift from God". I'm so hoping this is really true, because I LOVE the name Zane and especially love the meaning behind it and this is what I want to name my future son someday.Can anyone verify if this is true?Thank you,
Dawn
vote up1vote down

Replies

Sorry, I messed up...the meaning is "gracious gift from God" or "God's gift".If Zane does not mean this, what names do mean this but are very similar to Zane (not John, I don't really like that name).Thanks
vote up1vote down
As the previous poster said, the spelling Zane can be an Italian pet form of Giovanni, which is of course a variation of John.Unfortunately, the use of Zane as a given name in the USA is NOT from that Italian name but comes from the author Zane Grey, who was descended from the American Zane family, which arrived in colonial New Jersey from England. No one has been able to trace them back to Europe and figure out what their surname originally meant, but it is probably Engliah and not Italian and so one cannot assume it's related to "John."
vote up1vote down
Zane can be a Venetian diminutive of Giovanni (the Italian form of John). Read here:
http://www.behindthename.com/bb/fact/3035130
http://surnames.behindthename.com/bb/sur/4301735
However I suspect the pronunciation would be very different to how it is pronounced in English.Zane is also a Latvian feminine name, a form of Zuzanna. Again, the pronunciation is different.
vote up1vote down