Jason (name)
Encyclopedia
Jason is a common given name
for a male
. It comes from Greek
Ἰάσων (Iasōn), meaning "healer", from the verb ἰάομαι (iaomai) "heal, cure", cogn. with Ἰασώ (Iasō), the goddess of healing and ἰατρός (iatros), "healer, physician" (the earliest form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek i-ja-te, written in Linear B
syllabic script).
The name was borne in Greek Mythology by Jason
, the great Thessalian
hero who led the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece.
The name is also found in the Bible, as the house of a man named Jason was used as a refuge by Paul and Silas.
Its popularity in the United Kingdom
peaked during the 1970s, when it was among the top 20 male names, but it had fallen out of the top 100 by 2003.
A feminine form of the name is Jacin
, derived from the Spanish name Jacinta, or the Americanized version Jacinda - meaning Hyacinth.
Jason is the most common spelling; however, there are many variant spellings like Jayson.
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
for a male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
. It comes from 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;...
Ἰάσων (Iasōn), meaning "healer", from the verb ἰάομαι (iaomai) "heal, cure", cogn. with Ἰασώ (Iasō), the goddess of healing and ἰατρός (iatros), "healer, physician" (the earliest form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek i-ja-te, written in Linear B
Linear B
Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, an early form of Greek. It pre-dated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean civilization...
syllabic script).
The name was borne in Greek Mythology by Jason
Jason
Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus...
, the great Thessalian
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
hero who led the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece.
The name is also found in the Bible, as the house of a man named Jason was used as a refuge by Paul and Silas.
Its popularity in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
peaked during the 1970s, when it was among the top 20 male names, but it had fallen out of the top 100 by 2003.
A feminine form of the name is Jacin
Jacin
Jacin is a given name for both genders. It is Spanish in origin, and is a shortened form of Jacinta or a variation on the spelling of "Jason", meaning "Hyacinth"....
, derived from the Spanish name Jacinta, or the Americanized version Jacinda - meaning Hyacinth.
Jason is the most common spelling; however, there are many variant spellings like Jayson.
Name used in Fiction
- Jason is a recurring character in the Friday the 13th film series.