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I sympathize with the whole "why should I change, he's the one that sucks" attitude, but having the same name as a famous murderer is probably a good opportunit
by catalogia 7y ago
I sympathize with the whole "why should I change, he's the one that sucks" attitude, but having the same name as a famous murderer is probably a good opportunity to adopt a 'stage name' for professional use, if not get it legally changed.
I understand 'Hans' is related to 'Johannes' and is sometimes anglicized to 'John' (I believe one of my great grandfathers did this.) One of the nice things about the name 'John' is you can change it in various ways without anybody thinking it unusual; e.g. a 'John' can also call themselves 'Jack' and nobody thinks that unusual.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gsich 7y agoJohann/es is usually the given name for Hans.
- stephenr 7y agoMaybe it’s because I’m not American but if you introduce yourself as Jack and then your legal name is John I would think that unusual.
- grzm 7y agoJack is indeed a common nickname for John.
- retsibsi 7y agoAnd not just in America. It's common in Australia too, and apparently it dates back a long way in England. Jack has become a lot more common as an actual given name over the past few decades, though.
- maxlybbert 7y agoI thought it was a British thing. As an American, I’ve never met a John going by Jack (at least, I don’t think I have). On the other hand, C.S. Lewis apparently went by Jack, which isn’t a common nickname for Clive or Staples. But people generally don’t argue over nicknames. And they may not even realize a nickname actually is a nickname; it’s not common for people to ask for your legal ID, after all.
- ncmncm 7y agoPeople still talk about Jack Kennedy, the assassinated US president. Apparently Jack is a generic name, too, for any small boy. So inns would employ a boot-Jack to help guests get their boots off, later supplanted by a gadget.
- lazyasciiart 7y agoIt’s pretty American - I know a boy named John after his father John, who has been called Jack all his life.
- aliswe 7y agoOn a semi-related note, james is an english form of the name jacob.