Janoff Family History

Westernized form of Jewish (from Poland) Janow Polish Janów and Slovak Janov. In North America, this surname may also be a shortened and altered form of any of various Slavic and Jewish surnames beginning with Janow- or Janov-, e.g. Janowski. Compare Yanoff.

Westernized form of Macedonian Janov and of the more common related name Janev, which is from the personal name Jane (see Janeski). Variant of Yanoff 2, a surname of Bulgarian origin.

Alternatively, an Americanized form of Bulgarian Dzhanov, a patronymic from the Muslim (Bulgarian Turkish) personal name Dzhan, of ultimate Persian origin (from ḡān ‘soul, life’), formed with the Slavic possessive suffix -ov.