How ambiguous! (THE LIBRARY message #1278)

How ambiguous!

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Posted by Helen on September 22, 1997 at 10:24:13:

In response to Jane, Joan, Janet , written by Caroline on September 22, 1997 at 09:09:32

] ] ] I don't get the Joan thing.

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] Apart from the fact that he's teasing her, I think, these names are often used for the same person.(I included Janet deliberately in this. It's the Scots/ Northern English version of Jane, amongst other things.)

Hmmm... what other things, I wonder? ;-) I think it's a class thing, too: Joan (not any more, I hasten to add) was very much a peasantry name in England - I don't know when it became more upmarket, but by the time of Angela Brazil, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer and other great writers of school stories, it's definitely middle-class...

Helen

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