Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in

Irish English Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...

, is a male

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...

of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...

name '' Yohanan'' (), Seán ( anglicized as '' Shaun/

Shawn Shawn may refer to: *Shawn (given name) *Shawn (surname) See also * Sean * Shaun Shaun is an anglicized spelling of the Irish name Seán. Alternative spellings include Shawn, Sean and Shawne. Notable persons with the given name include: Peop ...

/ Shon'') and Séan ( Ulster variant; anglicized ''Shane/Shayne''), rendered '' John'' in English and Johannes/Johann/Johan in other Germanic languages. The

Norman French Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...

''Jehan'' (see '' Jean'') is another version. For notable people named Sean, refer to List of people named Sean.

Origin

The name was adopted into the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

most likely from ''Jean'', the French variant of the Hebrew name ''Yohanan''. As Gaelic has no letter (derived from ; English also lacked until the late 17th Century, with ''John'' previously been spelt ''Iohn'') so it is substituted by , as was the normal Gaelic practice for adapting Biblical names that contain in other languages (''Sine''/''Siobhàn'' for ''Joan/Jane/Anne/Anna''; ''Seonaid''/''Sinéad'' for ''Janet''; ''Seumas''/''Séamus'' for ''James''; ''Seosamh''/''Seòsaidh'' for ''Joseph'', etc.). In 1066, the Norman duke, William the Conqueror conquered England, where the Norman French name Jahan/Johan (, ) came to be pronounced ''Jean'', and spelled John. The Norman from the Welsh Marches, with the Norman King of England's mandate invaded parts of Leinster and Munster in the 1170s. The Irish nobility in these areas were replaced by Norman nobles, some of whom bore the Norman French name Johan or the

anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

name John. The Irish adapted the name to their own pronunciation and spelling, producing the name Seán (or Seathan). Sean is commonly pronounced (Irish: ''Seán'' ; ( Ulster dialect: ) or (Irish: , with fada on , not , thus leading to the variant Shane.) The name was once the common equivalent of John in Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, but has been supplanted by a vulgarization of its address form: ''Iain'' or ''Ian''. When addressing someone named Seán in Irish, it becomes ''a Sheáin'' , and in Scotland was generally adapted into

Scots Scots usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: * Scots language, a language of the West Germanic language family native to Scotland * Scots people, a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland * Scoti, a Latin na ...

and Highland English as Eathain, Eoin, Iain, and Ian (''John'' has traditionally been more commonly used in the Scots-speaking Lowlands than any form of Seán). Even in Highland areas where Gaelic is still spoken, these anglicisations are now more common than Seán or Seathan, undoubtedly due in part to registrars in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland having long been instructed not to register Gaelic names in birth or baptismal registrations.

In other languages

* English: Sean, Seon, Shane, Shayne, Shaine, Shon, Shaun, Shawn, Seann, Shaan * cy, italics=no, Sion, Shôn * Scottish Gaelic, Highland English and

: Eathain, Eoin, Iain, Ian * ko, 션, , , * ja, ショーン * zh, 肖恩, * ar, شان * he, שון

References

External links

Chinese translation of Sean
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sean Given names English-language masculine given names English masculine given names Irish-language masculine given names