Jack (name)

Infobox Given Name Revised
name = Jack


imagesize=
caption=
pronunciation = IPA|dʒæk (jak)
gender = Male (rarely Female)
meaning =
region =
origin = Middle English, indirect diminutive of "John"
nickname =
related names = John, Jon, Jackie
popularity = a

Jack (pronEng|ˈdʒæk) is a male given name, although in very rare cases it can be used as a female given name, and sometimes as a surname. In English it is the diminutive form of the name John,cite web
url=http://www.namestatistics.com/jack | title = Name Statistics - Jack
work = namestatistics.com | accessdate = 31 October | accessyear = 2007] though it is also often given as a proper name in its own right.

Origin

"Jack" originated from the addition of the Middle English diminutive suffix "-kin" (similar to the German "-chen") to the name "Jan," (John) which was itself a contracted version of the name "Jehan." This formed the name "Jankin" which eventually became "Jackin", and eventually "Jack". The process of back-formation has led many to believe that the name is related to the French "Jacques," owing to phonological similarities, but this seems to be coincidence. Although it may appear at first glance to be derived from the French Jacques—which is cognate with the names James and Jacob—native speakers of English would almost certainly associate the name "Jack" with John and only very rarely with "Jacob" (in which case the usual shortened form Jake is preferred). However, the name "Jack" also has roots in Hebrew, with the meaning "God is Gracious". This would make it a variant of names like "Hans" or "Sean"

Frequency

Given name

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, "Jack" has been the most frequently used male given name for babies for at least the years 2003–2008.cite web
url= http://www.statistics.gov.uk/specials/babiesnames_boys.asp
title= Top 100 names for baby boys in England and Wales
accessdate= 2008-02-09 | year= 2007
work= National Statistics Online | publisher= Office for National Statistics] [cite web
url= http://www.dfpni.gov.uk/index/news/most-popular-baby-names.htm
title= Jack and Katie are the most popular baby names in Northern Ireland
accessdate= 2008-02-10 | date= 2007-12-19 | work= News
publisher= Department of Finance and Personnel, Northern Ireland
quote= Jack has been the most popular boys name since 2003....] [cite press release
title = Jack and Emma were the most popular first names in Northern Ireland in 2003
publisher = Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
date = 2004-01-02 | accessdate = 2008-02-14
url = http://www.groni.gov.uk/Publication/512004111434.pdf | format = PDF
quote = Jack and Emma were the most popular first names given to children whose births were registered in Northern Ireland in 2003] Looking back through the historical record, the top status for Jack as a male given name is a recent phenomenon. For all of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century, William or John held the title of most frequent male given name.cite paper
first = Douglas A. | last = Galbi | url = http://www.galbithink.org/names.htm
title = Long-Term Trends in Personal Given Name Frequencies in England and Wales
version = 1.1 | publisher = (self-published) | date = 2002-07-20 | accessdate = 2008-02-10] A closer look at London shows that as of 1994 "Jack" was the most popular given name in the city, but does not appear among the top-ten most popular in the preceding 970 years.

According to the United States Census of 1990, "Jack" is an uncommon American given name, the given name for 0.315% of the male population and 0.001% of the female population.The male, female and total populations of the United States in the 1990 census were 121,239,418; 127,470,455; and 248,709,873, respectively. Information from cite web
url= http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=DEC_1990_STF1_DP1&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=DEC_1990_STF1_&-_lang=en&-format=&-CONTEXT=qt
title= General Population and Housing Characteristics: 1990 |accessdate=2008-02-09
work= 1990 Summary Tape File 1 (STF 1) - 100-Percent data |publisher= United States Census Bureau] [cite web
url= http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html
title= Name search results |accessdate=2008-02-09 |date= 2007-09-07
work= Search name files from 1990 Census |publisher= United States Census Bureau
quote= NAME(male):JACK ; RANK:53; %FREQ (CUMM FREQ):0.315 (48.102)] cite web
url= http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html
title= Name search results |accessdate=2008-02-09 |date= 2007-09-07
work= Search name files from 1990 Census |publisher= United States Census Bureau
quote= NAME(female):JACK ; RANK:3217; %FREQ (CUMM FREQ):0.001 (88.832)] However, the frequency of use of "Jack" as a baby name has steadily increased from the 160–170 rank prior to 1991 to a rank of 35 in 2006. [ [http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ Popular baby names ] ]

It is interesting to note the connotation that "Jack" had near the end of the 19th Century. According to the 1898 edition of Brewer's "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", the name could be used as a deprecatory appellation and could indicate inferiority or contempt. [cite book
last= Brewer |first= E. Cobham |authorlink= Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
title= Dictionary of Phrase and Fable |origyear= 1898 |url= http://www.bartleby.com/br/81.html
accessdate= 2008-02-10 |edition= 1898 |publisher= Henry Altemus Company |location= Philadelphia
isbn= 1-58734-094-1 |chapter= Jack |chapterurl= http://www.bartleby.com/81/9051.html]

urname

The appearance of "Jack" as a surname is much less frequent than its use as a male given name. In 1990 United States, this surname is shared by about 0.007% of the population, though the geographical distribution of the surname has been broad since at least 1840, at which time there was a modest concentration of Jacks in Pennsylvania. [cite web
url= http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html
title= Name search results |accessdate=2008-02-09 |date= 2007-09-07
work= Search name files from 1990 Census |publisher= United States Census Bureau
quote= NAME(last):JACK ; RANK:1852; %FREQ (CUMM FREQ):0.007 (50.991)] [cite web
url= http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Jack-family-history.ashx?fn=&yr=1840
title= Jack Family History Facts 1840
accessdate= 2008-02-10 | work= Family Facts | publisher= The Generations Network, Inc.] In the late 19th century, the geographic distribution of Jacks in England was also broad, with enrichment in North East England, Yorkshire and the Humber and southern North West England. [cite web
url= http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Jack-family-history-uk.ashx?fn=&yr=1891
title= Jack Families Living in England and Wales in 1891
accessdate= 2008-02-10 | work= Family Facts | publisher= The Generations Network, Inc.]

Notable people named "Jack"

Television and film

*Jack Black, an American actor
*Jack Cassidy, an American actor
*Jack Lord (1920–1998), an American television, film, and Broadway actor; best known as the star of "Hawaii Five-O"
*Jack Palance (1919–2006), Academy Award winning American film actor
*Jack Scalia, an American actor
*Jack Wagner, an American actor
*Jack Nicholson (born 1937), Academy Award winning American actor
*Jack Tweed (born 1987), appeared on the "UK Celebrity Big Brother 2007" television series
*Jack Lemmon (1925–2001), Academy Award winning American actvor
* [Jack donnelley-thomas (born 25/12/1991) has started in one film ' mad Charlie'

Books and comics

*Jack Chick (born 1924), American comic-book artist and publisher; owner of Chick Publications
*Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), American novelist, writer, poet, and artist; a founding member of the Beat Generation
*Jack Kirby (1917–1994) , American comic-book artist, writer and editor
*Jack London (1876–1916), American author of books such as The Call of the Wild
*Jack Warner Schaefer (1907–1991), an American author in the Western genre

Music

*Jack Bruce, best-known for being the bass guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Cream.
*Jack Casady, best-known for being the bass guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane.
*Jack Johnson, a singer/songwriter who also plays guitar
*Jack Jones (singer), American singer who won two Grammy Awards
*Jack Russell, lead singer of the band Great White
*Jack White, American rock musician from the White Stripes.
*Jack Barakat, who plays guitar in the band All Time Low

Politics

*John F. Kennedy, was commonly known as Jack
*Jack Layton (born 1950), Canadian politician
*Jack F. Matlock, Jr., U.S. diplomat
*Jack Kemp, U.S. Republican nominee for Vice President, 1996

ports

*Jack Chesbro (1874–1931), former American Major League Baseball pitcher inducted into Hall of Fame in 1946
*Jack Nicklaus American golfer
*Jack Holden (athlete) (1907–2004), English long-distance runner
*Jack Morris, former American Major League Baseball all-star pitcher
*Jack Powell (1874–1944), former American Major League Baseball pitcher
*Jack Churchill (sprinter), famous in the 1800's for being the first Canadian male to break 13 seconds

Other

*Jack Kevorkian, pathologist and noted proponent of assisted suicide and a patient's right to die
*Jack Robichaux (19th Century), a serial rapist in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
*Jack Thompson, an American attorney and anti-video game activist
*Jack Prelutsky (poet), famous for his children poet

Notable fictional characters named "Jack"

Movies

*Jack Dawson, one of two main characters in the 1997 film "Titanic"
*Jack-Jack Parr, The youngest member of the 'Parr' family, in "The Incredibles".
*Jack Ryan, the main character in "The Hunt for Red October," "Clear and Present Danger," and other Tom Clancy novels
*Jack Skellington, main character in Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
*Captain Jack Sparrow, lead character of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie series
**Jack the monkey, a fictional monkey named after Jack Sparrow, appearing in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" Disney franchise
*Jack Charles Powell, main character of the 1996 film "Jack"
*Jack Stanfield, main character of the 2006 film "Firewall"
*Jack Trainer, lead male character of the 1988 film "Working Girl"
*Jack Traven, the main character from the American action movie "Speed"
*Jack Twist, one of the main characters in the short story "Brokeback Mountain" and its film adaptation
*Jack Torrance, the antagonist of "The Shining"

Television

American Television

*Jack Bauer, the main character of the series "24"
*Jack Bristow, a main character from the series "Alias"
*Jack Donaghy, a main character on the series "30 Rock"
*Jack McFarland, a main character from the series "Will & Grace"
*Jack Gallo, a main character from the series "Just Shoot Me!"
*Jack O'Lantern, a villain character in "Billy and Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween", a holiday episode of the animated series "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy"
*Jack Spicer, a main villain from the series "Xiaolin Showdown"
*Jack O'Neill, from the series "Stargate SG-1"
*Jack Shephard, the male lead character on the series "Lost"
*Jack Tripper, character from the series "Three's Company" and "Three's a Crowd"
*Jack McCoy, Executive Assistant District Attorney in Law & Order series.
*Jack Cox, Dr. Perry Cox's oldest child and only son on the sitcom "Scrubs".
*Jack Carter, from the series "Eureka"
*Samurai Jack
*Jack Peabrain from the GodTube cartoon series.

British Television

*Jack the Front Loader, a character from the British children's television series "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends"
*Captain Jack Harkness, a character in the British television series "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood"

Music

*Captain Jack - the title of an early Billy Joel song about a heroin dealer.

Literature

*Jack Aubrey (Lucky Jack), captain of HMS "Sophie" in the novel "Master and Commander".
*Jack Frost, a character of old tales; personification of winter's onset.
*Jack McGurk, the 9 year old hero of a series of detective mysteries for children by Edmund Wallace Hildick.
*Jack and the Beanstalk, a classical story
*Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy), the protagonist in several Tom Clancy novels.
*, the Sin of Wrath, the title character of the webcomic Jack.
*Jack Merridew, The main antagonist in "Lord of the Flies".
*Jack Stanton, southern governor and presidential candidate (thought to represent Bill Clinton) in the book Primary Colors.

Comics

*Jack (webcomic), a furry webcomic by David Hopkins.
*Jack Horner (Fables), the legendary Jack of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and other stories, featured in the comic Fables and in his own spin-off Jack of Fables.
*Jack O'Lantern, is the name of four incarnations of a Marvel Comics supervillain.
*Jack Napier, the birth name of the DC character The Joker.

Video Games

* Jack, the silent protagonist of BioShock.
* Jack, Delta Squad's robotic aid in Gears of War.
* Jack is the first name of two separate characters from the Metal Gear series: Big Boss and Raiden.

Nursery rhymes

* Jack and the Beanstalk, an old fairy tale known throughout the world
* Jack and Jill (song), a nursery rhyme
* Jack Be Nimble, a nursery rhyme
* Jack sprat, a nursery rhyme
* Little Jack Horner, a nursery rhyme

References