2,446,359 Global Jones Family Members

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Jones Family History

Jones Family History
Family spelling variants include John, Johns, Joanes, Joens, Johnes, Johnys, Joynes.

There are approximately 2,296,589 Jones family members around the world. In general you can double this figure to include those related to the Jones names to allow for those connected to the name through maiden name connections.

It is estimated that the largest group of Jones family members live USA with 1,725,627 (75.1%) members, followed by Wales with 173,782 (7.6%), England with 163,268 (7.1%), Australia with 111,307 (4.8%), Canada with 68,210 (3%), South Africa with 37,365 (1.6%), New Zealand with 8,563 (0.7%), New Zealand with 9,912 (0.4%) and Ireland with 6,396 (0.3%) members. 

This surname is a Welsh and English variant of the Middle English personal name Jon(e) (John), a patronymic surname meaning the son of John.

In Wales the patronymic form became a hereditary surname – Jones – between the 16^th and 19^th centuries, depending on where in the country the family lived. 

Similar to John or Johns, it is derived from the personal name in Latin Johannes, meaning "Yahweh is gracious."

It was also an English locative name for someone who lived or worked ‘at John’s (house)’.

Early bearers of the surname in Wales include: Elizabeth Jones, 1574 in IGI (Llantrithyd, Glamorgan); John Jones, 1626 in IGI (Grosmont, Monmouths); Hen Jones, 1726 in IGI (Llanfihangel Aberbythych, Carmarthens); Cath Jones, 1728 in IGI (Holyhead, Anglesey).

In the 1881 Census, the surname was widespread across the UK and heavily dense in Wales. It was frequent in Anglesey, which was reported as a top county for the surname with 10,416 occurrences. In Holyhead, Anglesey there were 1,543 occurrences of Jones. 

In 1881, Farmer, Coal Miner and Labourer were the top 3 reported jobs worked by Jones in the UK. The most common Jones occupation was a Farmer and a less common occupation was Agricultural Labourer.

In the 1891 Census, there were 349,541 occurrences in England and 168,175 in Wales of which 9,861 were present in Anglesey. 

The noted William Jones, FRS (1675 –  1749) was a Welsh mathematician born in Anglesey. He was mostly known for his use of the symbol π (the Greek letter Pi) to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. He was also a close friend of Sir Isaac Newton. His son, William Jones (1746 - 1794), was a Anglo-Welsh philologist renowned for establishing connections between Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, leading to the concept of the Indo-European language group.

Sir Thomas John Woodward OBE is known professionally as Tom Jones, a Welsh singer that began his career in the mid-60s with several top-ten hits. In 1999, he was awarded and OBE for his service to music. He is more recently renowned for his role as singing coach and judge on British talent show The Voice.

Welsh actress, Catherine Zeta-Jones was born in 1969 in Swansea and started performing from a young age, where she played roles in Annie and Bugsy Malone. She was a regular cast member of British comedy drama The Darling Buds of May, as eldest daughter Mariette in the Larkin family. The actress is also well established in Hollywood with her roles in The Mask of Zorro, Chicago, Entrapment and Terminal along with many others. She married American actor Michael Douglas in 2000 and they have two children together.

1881, 1891 Census

1881 Census in Anglesey

Dictionary of American Family Homes, P Hanks OUP 2003

Homes of Family Names in Great Britain, H.B. Guppy, London 1890

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, P.Hanks, Coats, McClure OUP 2016

1860 Lower, Mark A Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom, London: J.R Smith. Public Domain

1857 Arthur, William An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain

J.M.P