Ion

Ion has two distinct origins that happen to share the same form. In Romanian and Basque usage, Ion is a vernacular form of John, itself derived from the Hebrew Yohanan, meaning God is gracious, and it remains one of the most common masculine names in Romania. Separately, in Greek mythology Ion was the legendary ancestor of the Ionian people, his name possibly connected to the Greek root meaning violet flower or to the name of the Ionian Sea. The Greek mythological figure was the subject of a play by Euripides and gave his name to the Ionian Greeks of ancient Asia Minor. Related forms include Ioan, Ion's fellow Romanian and Welsh variant of John, as well as Ioannes and the widely distributed Ivan.