My middle name is Jane. Plain Jane. It has absolutely no special meaning or significance whatsoever. I have no idea where it came from or why my natural father decided on the name. It is a complete mystery to me and will likely remain that way!
In the UK we often refer to the name Jane as being Plain Jane. Partly because it rhymes, I guess, and partly because it is perceived as being a rather dull and boring name. Apologies to all the Janes out there, but it’s pretty true! It isn’t a family name of mine, I don’t even know if anyone else in my family on my father’s side has the name at all. It wasn’t my grandmother’s name and if it was either of my great-grandmother’s, I have no idea. I have no information about them and as my natural father has requested that all his records on ancestry websites are sealed, I am not going to find out any time soon. Neither of his sisters were called Jane so, clearly, it’s not a big deal in terms of a hereditary name. I don’t know. Perhaps he liked it. Perhaps he couldn’t think of anything else. I have no idea and I am unlikely to ever know. I can’t say I care.
As part of writing this, I decided to look up what the name Jane means. I expected it to be some old English name or something that didn’t really mean much more than what I already knew of it as the female version of ‘John’. Again, there is no particular connection to the name ‘John’ in his family that I am aware of. His father’s name was William. Now I think about it, actually, I think his name was William John but I could be completely wrong. Because if it was such a big deal, he would have given the name to my brother and he didn’t. My uncle wasn’t a John and, as far as I can recall, none of my cousins were either. Anyway, I digress.
The name Jane, however, does seem to be far more historical and interesting than I had ever considered. It stems from the Hebrew name “Yochanan” which means ‘Yahweh is merciful’ or ‘God is gracious’. Jane is also derived from the old French name, Jehanne (though I would have thought that would be Joanne unless both are a derivative), and has been ‘popular’ since the 16th Century. We had a Queen Jane (Seymour), the most successful of Henry VIII’s wives given she bore him a son and a nine-day queen, Lady Jane Grey both in the 16th Century. Obviously there was Jane Austen and the character Jane Eyre, bringing the name to wider attention. And the fabulous anthropologist, Jane Goodall. The Italian equivalent is Giovanna which sounds much better!
There is even an International Jane Day on 13th June to celebrate the name! I didn’t know that – if I’d written this post first, I would have added it to yesterday’s list of things I’ve learned! It’s still moderately popular, confined as mine is mostly now to middle names but the fact that it is still going after so many centuries is remarkable.
I’ve always been quite denigrating of my middle name. But with everything I have learned about it now, I think I will celebrate my middle name being Jane. Perhaps not so Plain after all!
Louisa Simpson 