The JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) News arrived in the mail yesterday. I receive this because I am a member of the Vancouver group. I don't usually read much of it and I certainly don't think I've ever read any of the "Member Profiles" but I did yesterday for some reason. Perhaps Covid made me do it:) I was interested to read this:
"I have been exposed to Jane Austen most of my life as my mother is a big fan and named me Janice as the Scottish long form of Jane."
I had never heard that before and I didn't pick up that "Janice" was a Scottish long form of Jane.
I did pick up the information below and also that it was most popular as a name in the 40's -50's. I don't think it was really very popular as I knew very few people called Janice. I thought it was a rather odd name and something I had to always spell since "Janis" is probably more common. And then I had to spell "Fleming" since "Flemming" was common. And then I had to spell the street I lived on "Ormidale" since that also seemed to be unusual.
I rather like the idea that Janice might be the Scottish long form of Jane so I think I will choose to believe that.
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Hebrew |
| Meaning | God is gracious |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Jane, Janiche, Janicke, Janike, Janikke, Jannice, Janniche, Jannike, Jannikke, Janeese, Janise, jani |
Janice is a feminine given name, an extended version of Jane. Jane is one of the feminine forms of John in English, itself derived from the Hebrew Yohanan ('Graced by god') or Yehohanan ('God is gracious').
