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
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
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 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
Scots: Eathain, Eoin, Iain, Ian
* ko, 션, , ,
* ja, ショーン
* zh, 肖恩,
* ar, شان
* he, שון
See also
*
List of people named Sean
*
Eoin
Eoin (, or ) is an Irish name. The Scottish Gaelic equivalent is () and both are closely related to the Welsh . It is also cognate with the Irish . In the Irish language, it is the name used for all Biblical figures known as ''John'' in Engli ...
*
Alternate forms for the name John
*
John (given name)
John (; ') is a common male given name in the English language of Hebrew origin. The name is the English form of ''Iohannes'' and ''Ioannes'', which are the Latin forms of the Greek name Ioannis (Ιωάννης), originally borne by Hellenized J ...
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