JEAN CLARK

Like Jane and Joan, a medieval variant of Old French Je(h)anne. Towards the end of the Middle Ages this form became largely confined to Scotland. In the 20th century it became more widely used in the English-speaking world and enjoyed a period of great popularity, but it is now out of fashion. Among numerous well-known and influential bearers are the British novelists Jean Plaidy (Eleanor Hibbert, 1910–93) and Jean Rhys (Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, 1894–1979), British actress Jean Simmons (b. 1929), and American-born actress Jean Seberg (1938–79). It is also found as a variant spelling of the masculine name Gene.

English: occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally a member of a minor religious order who undertook such duties. The word clerc denoted a member of a religious order, from Old English cler(e)c ‘priest’, reinforced by Old French clerc. Both are from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klērikos, a derivative of klēros ‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’, with reference to the priestly tribe of Levites (see Levy) ‘whose inheritance was the Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members of religious orders who learned to read and write, so that the term clerk came to denote any literate man.