This name is one of the many hypocoristic forms of the ancient Hebrew" Yochanan" (John) meaning "Jehovah has favoured me (with a son)". The name, a favourite in the Eastern Church, was brought back to Europe by the 12th century Crusaders, where it soon achieved massive popularity. In fact there is no country in the Christianity which does not have several examples, and many have dozens of different variants. As "Jones" it is the second most popular British surname. It first appears in its Latinized form Johannes from the 12th Century onwards. One, Johannes (without surname) is recorded in "Social and Economic Documents of Lincolnshire" Circa 1140. However "Jenno" is a French form, or at least it was before it reached England,in the Huguenot period, being generally recorded in its homeland as Junot or Jennot. In England the usual spellings are Jenew and Genew, and the recordings include John Jennowe who married Mary Edmunds at St Botolphs without Aldergate on March 23rd 1600, Marie Jenos, daughter of Daniel and Jeanne Jenos, christened at La Patente French Huguenot Church, Spitalfields on December 31st 1725, and Henry Jenno, who married Elizabeth Bick at the famous church of St Dunstans in the East, London, on August 18th 1839. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Pertus Johannis. which was dated 1230, in the "Close Rolls of Suffolk". during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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