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The jonas Surname

jonas Name Meaning and History

  1. English, German, French, Jewish (Ashkenazic), Lithuanian, Czech and Slovak (Jonáš), and Hungarian (Jónás): from a medieval personal name, which comes from the Hebrew male personal name Yona, meaning ‘dove’. In the book of the Bible which bears his name, Jonah was appointed by God to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh, but tried to flee instead to Tarshish. On the voyage to Tarshish, a great storm blew up, and Jonah was thrown overboard by his shipmates to appease God’s wrath, swallowed by a great fish, and delivered by it on the shores of Nineveh. This story exercised a powerful hold on the popular imagination in medieval Europe, and the personal name was a relatively common choice. The Hebrew name and its reflexes in other languages (for example Yiddish Yoyne) have been popular Jewish personal names for generations. There are also saints, martyrs, and bishops called Jonas venerated in the Orthodox Church. Ionas is found as a Greek family name.
  2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): respelling of Yonis, with Yiddish possessive -s.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The jonas name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the jonas family name as far back in history as possible.

jonas Family Facts

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Distribution of jonas Families in the US in 1920
Number of jonas families
 81-159
 28-80		 1-27
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Jonas message board


Threads: 108 - Messages: 327
ThreadAuthorReplies
maiden name of pauline jonas ejs159 0
SMITH/JONAS/GREEN KYBLUEEYES32000 0
Herman(n) Joseph Jonas gordonm142 0
jonas and kerswell jonas and kerswell 5
jonas's of lesterville, sd around 1890's ejs159 0
Joseph Jonas/Mary Pulley/San Francisco gjonas44 0
James Newton Jonas Karla Beason 4
Jeremiah Jonas PA-OH-IA riznsun 1
John Jonas Patricia Sargent 2
Oscar Jonas Patty Spangler 2
Viewing 1-10 of 108 |  Go to the full board

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