Heraldry: Jones

Title-JonesEach family connects hundreds of people to form an intricate pattern of ancestors and descendants.  Our origins span the world, our families come from all religions and ways of life.  The common thread of Heraldry links many cultures and establishes the foundations of a Surname before words were a common understanding and images demonstrated a basic understanding to the populace.

This page represents the following Surnames: Jones.

Heraldry for every family is represented on each page as it has become available through out our research, as a tribute to the historical and evolutionary process that each family has survived. Name definitions are provided for each family as we find a connection to them, through intermarriage or discovery. Scottish, English and Irish families are represented with tartans, badges and other memorabilia as it becomes available to us. We’ve worked very hard at finding the most accurate and appropriate connections for each surname, if you see an error or have more information to add, please contact us via e-mail at CSGS@SnowStones.com.


 

Jones Name Meaning

‘Son of John’. This name is particularly associated with Wales.

Jones Name Meaning and History

English and Welsh: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Jon(e). The surname is especially common in Wales and southern central England. In North America this name has absorbed various cognate and like-sounding surnames from other languages.

John Name Meaning and History

English, Welsh, German, etc.: ultimately from the Hebrew personal name yo-hanan ‘Jehovah has favored (me with a son)’ or ‘may Jehovah favor (this child)’. This personal name was adopted into Latin (via Greek) as Johannes, and has enjoyed enormous popularity in Europe throughout the Christian era, being given in honor of St. John the Baptist, precursor of Christ, and of St. John the Evangelist, author of the fourth gospel, as well as others of the nearly one thousand other Christian saints of the name. Some of the principal forms of the personal name in other European languages are Welsh Ieuan, Evan, Siôn, and Ioan; Scottish Ia(i)n; Irish Séan; German Johann, Johannes, Hans; Dutch Jan; French Jean; Italian Giovanni, Gianni, Ianni; Spanish Juan; Portuguese João; Greek Ioannes (vernacular Yannis); Czech Jan; Russian Ivan. Polish has surnames both from the western Slavic form Jan and from the eastern Slavic form Iwan.

There were a number of different forms of the name in Middle English, including Jan(e), a male name (Jane); Jen (Jenkin); Jon(e) (Jones); and Han(n).

There were also various Middle English feminine versions of this name (e.g. Joan, Jehan), and some of these were indistinguishable from masculine forms. The distinction on grounds of gender between John and Joan was not firmly established in English until the 17th century. It was even later that Jean and Jane were specialized as specifically feminine names in English; bearers of these surnames and their derivatives are more likely to derive them from a male ancestor than a female. As a surname in the British Isles, John is particularly frequent in Wales, where it is a late formation representing Welsh Siôn rather than the older form Ieuan (which gave rise to the surname Evan). As an American family name this form has absorbed various cognates from continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) It is used as a given name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a surname among families from southern India.


Family Motto: ‘Esto Sol Testis’ (Let The Sun Be Witness)

Family Crest:   Coat of Arms

Surname References from:
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
Encyclopedia of Surnames, John Ayto, A & C Black Publishers Ltd, ISBN 978 0 7136 8144 4
(Unless otherwise stated)

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