September 24 - Happy Birthday, U.S. Supreme Court AND Chief Justice John Marshall!

Posted on September 24, 2021

This is an update of my post published on September 24, 2010:

On this day in 1755, John Marshall was born in a log cabin on the frontier of Virginia. When he was born, there was no such thing as a United States of America (the colonies declared independence when he was 21 years old), nor of course a Supreme Court of the United States of America (it was created by Congress when on Marshall’s 34th birthday!).

Marshall was homeschooled until age 14, when he was sent to a boarding school about a hundred miles away. He grew up to be a soldier in the Revolutionary War, a lawyer, a politician, and the author of a famous 5-volume biography of George Washington. Finally, at age 46, Marshall was appointed the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He served until his death at age 80.

This cabin is similar to the one that Marshall was born in.

To learn more about the Supreme Court, try Ben’s Guide or the Time’s Supreme-Court-for-kids page (which is a bit outdated, since it features the late great Ruth Bader Ginsberg). Oyez has a page on John Marshall.

What’s with all the Johns?

I noticed that the first Chief Justice was John Jay, the second was John Rutledge, and the fourth, of course, was John Marshall. (Thank goodness, the third Chief Justice was named something other than John – Oliver Ellsworth.) John Marshall was appointed to the court by President John Adams. Our current Chief Justice is John G. Roberts!

John is currently the third most common boy’s name in the U.S., after James (#1) and Robert (#2). Recent articles have pointed out that there are more men named John running large corporations than there are women CEOs. (Yikes!!!) The historical data I found states that John was THE most common boy’s name in the English-speaking world until the mid-1920s. Jonathan and Jon are similar sounding names that come from a different Hebrew name. Johnny and Jack are common nicknames for John—but there are many others as well.

All these names are the equivalent (or translation) of John in other languages. Match the name to the language:

1. Juan

2. Ian

3. Johan or Johannes

4. Jonas

5. Jean

6. Hans

7. Jan

8. Sean

LANGUAGES: French, German, Irish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Scottish, Spanish

ANSWERS:

1. Spanish

2. Scottish

3. Norwegian (or German)

4. Lithuanian

5. French

6. German

7. Polish

8. Irish

How Many of Me is a name statistic site that allows you to find people who share your first name, people who share your last name, AND people who have your first and last name! Again, it’s just for the U.S. According to the website, there are more than 48 thousand people named John Smith, more than 1,000 people named James Bond, and more than 100 people named Harry Potter. There’s only one of me, although my sister and brother have name-alikes (41 people with my brother’s name, and 54 people with my sister’s name).