(male) English form of the Greek name Iasōn, borne in classical mythology by a hero, leader of the Argonauts, who sailed to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, enduring many hardships and adventures. The sorceress Medea fell in love with him and helped him to obtain the Fleece; they escaped together and should have lived happily ever after. However, Jason fell in love with another woman and deserted Medea. Medea took her revenge by killing her rival, but Jason himself survived to be killed in old age by one of the rotting timbers of his ship, the Argo, falling on his head. The classical Greek name Iasōn probably derives from Greek iasthai ‘to heal’. In New Testament Greek, the name probably represents a classicized form of Joshua. It was borne by an early Christian in Thessalonica, at whose house St Paul stayed (Acts 17:5–9; Romans 16:21). Probably for this reason, it enjoyed some use among the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries. The name has been used for various characters in films and television series, and in the mid-20th century it enjoyed a sudden burst of popularity, although it was also the subject of some rather surprising hostility. Among popular non-fictional bearers of the name are the film actor Jason Robards (1922–2000), his father (1893–1963), also a film actor, and, more recently, the Australian actor Jason Donovan (b. 1968).
Variant: Jayson.
Scottish and English: from Middle English blak(e) ‘black’ (Old English blæc, blaca), a nickname given from the earliest times to a swarthy or darkhaired man.
Scottish and English: from Old English blāc ‘pale’, ‘fair’, i.e. precisely the opposite meaning to 1, and a variant of Blake 2. Blake and Black are found more or less interchangeably in several surnames and place names.
English: variant of Blanc as a Norman name. The pronunciation of the nasalized vowel gave considerable difficulty to English speakers, and its quality was often ignored.
Scottish and Irish: translation of various names from Gaelic dubh ‘black’ (see Duff).
Danish and Swedish: generally, probably the English and Scottish name, but in some cases perhaps a variant spelling of Blak, a nickname from blak ‘black’.
In some cases, a translation of various names meaning ‘black’, for example German and Jewish Schwarz.
