1307: Name-Variation (Jacob and Séamus) Jul 9, 2018

There are many names which are thought of as being distinctly regional in parts of Europe but are not unique, and share a biblical origin. This even happens with names that sound nothing alike, such as 'John' and 'Iwan'. This is true of many others as well, such as all the descendants of the Hebrew יעקב (Yaʻaqov). There are many common sound-changes which result in these names, such as the change from [j] in Hebrew to [dʒ] in English (usually written with Y and J respectively) such as in John from Yohanan, or Joseph from Yusef too. In Irish this sound usually becomes [ʃ] (like SH), in this case the other derivative: Séamus, similar to the difference in Sean and John. Usually, the Irish names are related to the French which helps to understand where this similar sound comes from, but also in this case the [m] in Séamus as well as the [s] comes from the Iacomus, which was a French variation of the Latin name Iacobus. [m] and [b] don't sound that similar, but actually they are pronounced with the same configuration in the mouth, only [m] is nasalized.
Make sure to check out the new Word Facts Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTKKSf35LSE&t=10s. Support Word Facts on Patreon for new things and to help make the content better: https://www.patreon.com/wordfacts.