Jacques

(male) (French) form of James and Jacob. In French there is no distinction between a form corresponding to Jacob and a form corresponding to James. This is a perennially popular French given name, and Jacques or Jacques Bonhomme has been used (like John Bull in English) as a typification of the ordinary citizen. In Shakespeare's time it was also used as an English name, pronounced ‘jay-kwez’, as in the case of the melancholy character Jacques in As You Like It. Though rarely, if ever, now used in Britain it is found in the United States.