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Jones is a common surname in Wales and England. It is the most common surname in Wales, despite there officially being no letter "J" in the Welsh language, although there are a few words borrowed from English language eg Jocan = Joke. This is because "Jones" is in spelling and pronunciation an anglicisation of the Welsh "ap Siôn" (= "Son Of John" = "Johnson"), in which the "Si" is pronounced /ʃ/ like an English "sh". Several surnames that are common in Wales are similar anglicisations of Welsh patronymic surnames. Other examples are Bevan, Bowen, Parry, Powell, Price and Pritchard.

[edit] Family name history

One of the most surprising features of the surname Jones is that despite its being by far the commonest surname in Wales, comprising ten per cent of the population in 1890, there is in fact no J in the Welsh alphabet. This anomaly is explained by the name's origin as the anglicised form of the Welsh Ieuan, much of whose popularity lay in its being adopted for the personal name John in the Welsh Authorised Version of the Bible. John in turn literally means "Yahweh or God has favored", and records of the name in Wales date back to the twelfth century, when the Caernaervonshire Court Rolls cite one John Hyna ap Thomas Ap Ieuan ap Grono. "ap" is the Welsh equivalent of the Scottish "Mac" signifying "son of", and Jones belongs to that large category of surnames derived from the personal name of the father of the original bearer, denoting "(the descendant of) the son of Ieuan". In the Memoranda Ros of Wales for the period 1282 to 1343 we find such entries as that of Ieuan ap Gruffyd and Ieuan ap Llywelyn.

Since that period, the surname has had a long and distinguished history, as is testified to by the number of families of the Welsh nobility by whom it has been borne. Thus, the Jones of Abermarles in Carmarthen are descended from Lord Dynevor, and the Jones of Dol-yn-Edeirnon have as their ancestor Jeslyn ap Gwrgant, Lord of Glamorgan, whilst the Jones of Llanerchrugog trace a direct line to Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, Founder of the Third Royal Tribe of North Wales and Powis, and himself seventh in descent from Rhodri Mawr the Great, King of Wales. It was indeed among the first names to become established there, the name Jones appearing in the lists of Freemen of New England in the early 1600s.

The original Family Crest shows a black cross and four black Cornish choughs on a silver shield. Though there are a great many Joneses in the world today with many family crests, archaeologists believe that this was the first Jones crest. The family crest was created by the decendents of Rhodri Mawr (Warrior, prince and the first Welsh ruler to be called “Great”)who created the surname from the name John. Derived from the latin Johannes meaning "Yahweh is Gracious."

[edit] People

For all people (including fictional characters) with this surname, see List of people with surname Jones.

[edit] Companies

• David Jones Limited, Australian retailing company
• Dow Jones & Company, a publisher and financial information firm
• Edward Jones Investments, brokerage firm based out of St. Louis, Missouri
• Jones Day, a United States law firm
• Jones Soda, an American beverage company based in Washington
• Jones Intercable, former cable TV company
• Peter Jones (department store), one of the largest and best known department stores in London

[edit] Education

• Bob Jones University A university in Greenville, South Carolina
• Jones College Prep, a school named after William Jones
• Jones College, one of the nine Residential Colleges at Rice University

[edit] Science and mathematics

• Jones calculus, a way of describing polarization in optics
• Jones Fracture, a fracture of the fifth metatarsal of the foot
• Jones' stain, a type of stain used in pathology
• Jones, the unit of specific detectivity used in photodetectors

[edit] Buildings

• Jones Point Lighthouse, a lighthouse on the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia
• Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, an outdoor amphitheatre

[edit] Media

[edit] Film

• Black Belt Jones, blaxploitation kung-fu film
• Carmen Jones, a 1950s adaptation of the opera Carmen, starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte
• Cleopatra Jones, another blaxploitation kung-fu film
• Mr. Jones (film), a film starring Richard Gere
• The Indiana Jones franchise, a series of action films featuring an eponymous archeologist
• Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean), a fictional character from the Pirates of the Caribbean films based on a mythological character
• Osmosis Jones, animated film, starring Chris Rock

[edit] Music

• Mr. Jones, a song by Counting Crows
• Me and Mrs. Jones, a song by Billy Paul
• Nathan Jones, a song by The Supremes
• Love Jones, a song by Brighter Side of Darkness
• Basketball Jones, a song by Cheech and Chong, a parody of Love Jones
• Casey Jones (song), a song by Grateful Dead

[edit] Television

• Alas Smith and Jones, a British comedy series and a name parody of Alias Smith and Jones
• Alias Smith and Jones, a 1970s Western series
• Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?, an animated television series that aired from 2002 to 2004

[edit] Video games

• Jones in the Fast Lane

[edit] Comics

• Desolation Jones, a comic book
• The Ballad of Halo Jones, a comic strip

[edit] Other

• Davy Jones' Locker, an idiom for the bottom of the sea
• Dow Jones Industrial Average, a stock market index
• "Keeping up with the Joneses", a phrase that refers to maintaining social appearances of wealth or status
• Generation Jones, a name for Americans born between 1954 and 1965

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