What is your name?

My name is Jonathan.

What isn't your name?

It is not Jonathon, Johnathon, Jonathen, John, Jon, Johnny or anything other than Jonathan.

How do you spell your name?

J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N

Has anyone ever misspelled your name?

Yes. Most commonly I get called "Jonathon" in email. Even though my name is right there in the email address.

I've even had council tax and electoral roll registration sent to me with that name. It not only betrays the human link in poorly integrated systems but the inaccuracy affects credit reports, communications and even identity checks.

Why is 'Jonathan' so hard to spell?

It isn't.

Who cares?

At best, getting someone's name wrong shows a lack of attention to detail. That's if the person you're addressing even gets the email, since their address is probably in the format of firstname.surname@company.com. It may also make communication come across as insincere or disrespectful. It can imbue dissappointment in the person you are communicating with. I hope you're not asking for a favour.

It causes issues of identity uncertainty, leading to authorship disputes, fraudulent attribution, identity fraud, hindering criminal investigation and even changes the way we behave.

Are you angry I misspelled your name?

Probably not.

If it's just a casual email I won't make a fuss, but if you're making introductions, disseminating my work, doing anything formal or engaging in a chain of communication, please get it right.

How do I confirm I've spelled 'Jonathan' correctly?

Here's a simple 8 point checklist:

If you fail any of these checks, I suggest you go back to the beginning and start again.

What does 'Jonathan' look like when spelled correctly?

It should look something like this:

What are the frequency of the letters in 'Jonathan'?

Interesting question! There are 6 unique alphabetical characters. Two of these occur twice whilst the other four occur just once. That's a total of 8 letters. Here's a table of the character frequencies for my name:

Letter Count
A 2
N 2
H 1
J 1
O 1
T 1
Total 8

If you've tried to spell Jonathan and find that you have less than 8 letters, or more than 8 letters then you've spelt it wrong. But take care - just because you have 8 letters, doesn't mean you've got it right!

I know a Jonathan who spells his name differently

Then his name is not Jonathan.

Is 'Jonathan' the most common spelling?

A cursory search suggests that it is. Comparison of newly named babies in England and Wales for 2018:

Name Count
Jonathan 218
Johnathan 18
Jonatan 4
Jonathon 3
Johnathon 3
Jonothon 0
Jonothan 0

So it really confuses me how often the 'Jonathon' mistake is made when it's so relatively uncomon.

How popular is the name 'Jonathan'?

It's been in the top 100 names in England and Wales since the 1950s, though it's become less popular since peaking in the 1980s when it was in the top 20.

The ONS has a tool to observe name popularity over the last 100 years or so.

It only works for names that have ever been in the top 100. You'll note that whilst 'Jonathan' is there, 'Jonathon', 'Johnathan' and the other common misspellings are not.

Are there any acceptable variants of your name?

I use Jonathan Francis Roscoe, abbreviated to J. F. Roscoe for papers and other professional contexts. The spelling of 'Jonathan' remains the same.

How many times has your name been misspelt?

I don't know, I'll start tracking it.

Month Count
December 2020 12
January 2021 15
February 2021 10
March 2021 16
April 2021 8
May 2021 6
June 2021 2
July 2021 5
August 2021 4
September 2021 3
October 2021 4
November 2021 10
Total 94

For December 2020 - November 2021, my name was misspelt an average of 1.80 times a week.