Jean (surname)

Jean may be a French surname from the given name Jean (Old French: Jehan), or an English surname which originated as a variant spelling of Jayne or as a toponymic surname referring to Genoa, Italy.[1][2][3] It may also be an Americanised or Anglicised spelling of various Chinese surnames, including Jian and Zhen.[4][5] Variant spellings of the English and French surnames include Jenn, Jenne, Jeanne, Geen, Genn, and Jeans.[6]

French government statistics show 33,393 people with the surname Jean born in France from 1891 to 2000 (see table).[7] Statistics compiled by Patrick Hanks on the basis of the 2011 United Kingdom census and the Census of Ireland 2011 found 305 people with the surname Jean on the island of Great Britain and six on the island of Ireland. In the 1881 United Kingdom census there were 130 bearers of the surname, primarily in London.[8] The 2010 United States census found 21,140 people with the surname Jean, making it the 1,703rd-most-common surname in the country. This represented an increase from 15,321 people (2,172nd-most-common) in the 2000 census. In the 2010 census, 22.9% of the bearers of the surname identified as non-Hispanic white (down from 31.7% in the 2000 census), and 70.2% as non-Hispanic black (up from 55.5% in the 2000 census).[9]