Jonathan is a common masculine given name meaning "YHWH has given" in Hebrew. The first known Jonathan was a son of King Saul in the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

, a close friend of David

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

.

Alternative spellings of Jonathan include Johnatan, Jonathon, Johnathan, Jonatan, Jonothon, Jonothan, Johnathon, Johnthan, and Yonatan (a common name in Hebrew). Biblical

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 variants include Yehonathan, Y'honathan, Yhonathan, Yonatan, Yonaton, Yonoson, Yeonoson or Yehonasan. In Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, "Yoni" is a common nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 for Yonatan (Jonathan) in the same way Jonny

Jonny

Jonny is a masculine given name, and pet name, in the English language. In some cases it is a simplified form of Johnny; in other cases it is a pet form of Jon. A variant form of Jonny is Jonnie....

 is for Jonathan in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

The name was the 30th most popular boys' name in the United States in 2009, according to the Social Security Administration.

Nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

s include Jon, Jonty, Jonny, Jack, Nathan, Johnny, Jono,"'Jonjon"', and Jonny-Boy.

Etymologically

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

, Jonathan is not a variation of John

John (given name)

John is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Latin Ioannes, Iohannes, which is in turn a form of the Greek , Iōánnēs. This Greek name is a form of the Hebrew name , , which means "God is generous"...

. Names with similar meanings include Theodore in Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and Bogdan

Bogdan

Bogdan or Bohdan - is a Slavic masculine name. It is derived from the Slavic words Bog/Boh , meaning "god", and dan , meaning "given". Other names with similar meaning include South Slavic Božidar, Polish Bożydar, Greek Theodore, Hebrew Nathanael and Jonathan, Latin Deodatus and French Dieudonné...

/Bozhidar in Slavonic.

See also

• For the Israeli moshav
  Moshav
  Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah...
  
  , see Yonatan, Golan Heights
  Yonatan, Golan Heights
  Yonatan is an Israeli settlement and a moshav located in the central Golan Heights. Yonatan was started as a moshav shitufi and underwent a privatization process to become a "yishuv kehillati" . The settlement is affiliated with the Hapoel HaMizrachi movement, and is under the jurisdiction of...
  
  
• Jonathan (disambiguation)
• John (given name)
  John (given name)
  John is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Latin Ioannes, Iohannes, which is in turn a form of the Greek , Iōánnēs. This Greek name is a form of the Hebrew name , , which means "God is generous"...