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Pronunciation of the surnames Job and Jobs: What's the difference?

  • With the passing of our beloved Steve Jobs, TV news have been constantly talking about him, and one thing that I have been wondering a lot about regards his last name. The last name Jobs is not popular in America and on the few occasions I have seen it, it was spelled without the letter "S" and it was also pronounced just like the biblical name 'Job' (rhymes with robe.) I had a friend called Melissa Jobe and even though the spelling was different, it was pronounced exactly like the biblical name aforementioned. The same about a a kid I met back in college whose first name was Job. So why wasn't Steve's surname also pronounced like the biblical one? I get it may be because his last name doesn't mean anything biblical but simply job like the noun/verb. Still, what's its origins and explanation for its pronunciation? Any historians out there who could explain this to me? Thanks!

  • Answer:

    There is a set rule: with a final "e", it would be pronounced as Job in the Bible. Without the "e" (and the only way I heard it pronounced until his death) was Job/Jobs, as what job are you employed at. You do not need a historian; people can pronounce their own name any way they choose. I have known of so many names pronounced one way by one family member, and a different way by another person. Just like until the last century - century and a half, there was no standard spelling, so even now there is no standard pronounciation. One quick example is Nevada: the State is pronounced with a as in at; the City is pronounced as a in farther.

KimE at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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There is a huge answer, but it pretty much defies what many new persons believe about genealogy. There is NO "right/wrong" when it comes to how a name is spelled or pronounced. It simply comes down to how it evolved, for different persons with any surname. Many immigrants came with difficult to spell or pronounce names. Using one from my own work..Dauphinais is a French Canadian family. The immigrant and descendants wound up with Anglicized names. ie Dolphay. It simply was easier, and in the 1800s, there were no standards. You spelled it how you wanted..or how the clerk happened to think was accurate, and went into the record. Remember, the clerk is who did the entry. Or minister in church documents. The children/sons of the immigrant WERE STILL HIS CHILDREN, no matter what the spelling. And genealogy is about relationships...not spelling or pronounciation. It also is important to realize that having the same name is not proof of relationship. Names evolved from descriptive things, ie appearance, occupation, town of origin. NOT ALWAYS related. Obviously, all Smiths do not descend from the same person. Neither do all Millers, etc. Lee is a name that appears in both China and England. Same name, but does NOT HAVE a single place of origin. You also can have Lees who are African American..and took the name by choice after emancipation. Their biological roots come from their ancestry, normally in Africa...and has nothing to do with Lees from England OR China. Bottom line..there is no significance at all to how a name is said, or spelled, or even where it comes from. And for that matter...Steve Jobs was adopted. His birth father is Syrian.

wendy c

Why should it be pronounced like the biblical one? There is no set rule of thumb on how to pronounce any name. The correct way is to pronounce the name like the person who has the name pronounces it. Also different languages pronounce vowels and consonants differently. Often times the S at the end of a name indicates the root person ws the son of someone named Job but this doesn't mean the root person of Steve's name was Job or Jobs or whatever. Spellings were changed down through the years. Many people were illiterate and a name was spelled the way some clerk heard it.

Shirley T

'

Sunday Crone

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