Jordan Surname Study
focused on the Slovenian Jordan families
Also see the companion Jordan DNA page.
Jordan is a common surname (family name) around the world and also a given name. It most often seems to derive from the middle-ages and post-crusades time when people were baptized with water from the river Jordan. Hence common among the Catholic / Christian people's of Europe. We are focused almost exclusively on its use in Slovenia here though. There is a wider, more general Jordan Surname study at FamilyTreeDNA.
We have always been puzzled at the use of the surname Jordan in Slovenia. This because the spelling variation Jordan is generally only found in England (or from English roots). Each language / country has their own local variation of this source name from the biblical area and use. Jourdain is the French, Jordania in German, and Giordania in Italian. Like in Spanish, the letter J in Slovenian is more like a Y in English. You would use a G to get the J sound in Slovenian. So how did this English variation end up so prominent in Slovenia? Especially so concentrated around the Šentjernej area our Jordans are from (still today).
Our particular line had family lore stating the name came from a French colonel left behind by Napoleon to manage the Sentjernej region. And this explained the family business of being the mayor and sheriff in town; as well as addiction to being multi-lingual as the governance was from Austria (German speaking) for so many centuries. But why was the name not Jourdain (French) or Jordania (German) instead of this more English spelling? We have since traced our line to 1700's in the area and so pre-dating any effect by Napoleon in 1809-1812. But this still does not explain the English spelling. (It should be noted that the spelling Jordan is now often seen in use as a German surname as well.)
It appears they owned many lands back in the 1700's. And thus may explain the prominence of the name in the area today. Many descendant lines since that time could have occurred if the family was prosperous then. Still a puzzling work-in-progress.