January Jones says she’s ‘furious’ after learning that Jim is short for James

‘What a weird name,’ Jones says

January Jones has just learned that the name Jim is short for James, and it’s safe to say she’s not happy about it.

The Mad Men star, 46, took to her Instagram Story on 9 January to share her unfiltered reaction after discovering the origin of the nickname Jim. “Last night I spent a good 30 minutes laying in bed pondering the name Jim. Like, what a weird name,” she began the candid text post.

“It’s not short for anything, it doesn’t mean anything. Imagine if Rose’s love interest in Titanic was named Jim, would you even care if he froze? Prob not,” Jones continued. But when the X-Men: First Class actor expressed her confusion to her family, they informed her that the name Jim is actually short for James.

“I relayed these thoughts to my family this morning and my mom said that Jim is short for James and I’m furious, how did someone get to Jim from James?” she wrote. “So stupid. I’m so ashamed that the word Jimothy was in my brain for a few minutes. I can never get that time back.”

Despite Jones’ frustration with the name Jim, she issued an apology to all the Jims of the world for her fuming reaction. “And sorry to the Jims, I mean no disrespect. Also sorry to my family for how I am,” she quipped.

(January Jones / Instagram)

Indeed, the moniker Jim is a diminutive of James, which originally comes from the Hebrew name Jacob, and means “supplanter.” While the origin of Jim was unbeknownst to the Last Man on Earth star, her fans were still amused by the actor’s sudden realisation.

“I am so obsessed with January Jones’s Instagram,” one fan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Someone please check on January Jones. Love, Jim/James/Jimothy,” said Fox 5 DC anchor Jim Lokay.

“January Jones is an EXCELLENT instagram poster. Top tier stuff,” another fan wrote.

Jones, who’s a mother to 12-year-old son Xander Dane Jones, has been known to joke around with her Instagram followers by sharing funny and honest posts to her social media. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she kept her 1.1m Instagram followers entertained by lamenting about life in quarantine - including posting a video of herself dancing while wearing a light therapy mask and drinking beer from a can.

However, when US tabloid The National Enquirer reportedly planned to declare her a “desperate attention-seeker” in an article, Jones took it upon herself to troll the news outlet. Back in December 2020, Jones posted a screenshot of an email which declared that the National Enquirer was planning to write a story about her Instagram feed, and how it has “worried” her friends.

“The National Enquirer is preparing to publish a story which reports January Jones has worried friends with her series of attention-grabbing bikini pictures and social media posts,” the email read. “Sources claim her content smacks of a ‘desperate cry for attention’ and note how her acting work appears to have dried up before then [sic] pandemic took hold.”

In a caption of the screenshot, Jones joked: “S***. They’ve discovered my secret. Consider this my public apology to my ‘friends’.” She then posted another photo of herself in a bikini, along with the caption: “Had to do it. #DESPERATE”.