Jonas

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ORIGIN AND HISTORY

Jonas is the Biblical name of a prophet who, when disobeying God, found himself in the belly of whale. Jonah means "dove" in Hebrew. The story of Jonah and the whale is one of the shorter "books" in the Bible, but it has had a remarkable impact and is known by many non-biblical scholars, school children and even to a degree in popular culture. The nature of the dispute was Jonah's refusal to preach in the city of Nineveh. God then caused a storm that affected the ship in which Jonah was traveling and Jonah was thrown overboard. A variant of Jonas from the New Testament in the Greek form Ionas.^[1]

POPULARITY

According to the Social Security Administration, the popularity of the name Jonas has experienced something of a resurgence in the past few years. Its ranking in the list of most popular names in the United States was 331st in 2007 (see table below), and the highest point Jonas has reached in the past 100 years. Prior to this recent resurgence and not reflected on the chart, Jonas’ previous high rankings were 457th in 1981 and 443rd in 1908.

Social Security Administration

FACTS

• JOnAS is an open-source implementation JAVA application server^[1]

NAMESAKES

• Jonas (or, alternately "De Jonas") "is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It lies east of the village of Vaassen, on the western side of the Apeldoornsch Kanaal" in The Netherlands.^[1]

FAMOUS PERSONS

• Hans Jonas (1903 - 1993) was a German philosopher best known for his work "The Imperative of Responsibility." His work largely focuses on the ethical issues and problems related to technology.
• Jonas Salk (1914 - 1995) was a medical pioneer, biologist and physician best known for and responsible for polio vaccine -- thereafter called the Salk Vaccine. ^[1]
• Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas are better known in contemporary popular culture as The Jonas Brothers. They are a musical act.

Author: Mike Szimanski

NOTES