Jack

[Eileen Cook]

Could some one please tell me what the Swedish name for Jack might be?

[Sven Grönberg]

I think it is Jakob.

[Anders Karlsson]

No, Jakob is not the right name. Jack is a diminutive form of the name John. The Swedish name for John is Johan or less commonly Johannes. The name Hans is originally also a variant of Johan(nes).
 
So, I think the best choice as a Swedish name for Jack would be Johan.
 
(Jakob is the same name as James.)

[Anna-Carin Betzén]

Andreas and Sven,
 
I'd say you're both right - i.e., which name is right may depend on the circumstances.  
 
E.g., if Eileen is looking for a name for Swedish-American baby, I agree with Andreas about the name options. But if she's trying to reconstruct what a Swedish emigrant's name may have been before it was changed into Jack, I think it's premature to rule out Jakob as an alternative.  
 
I think a Jakob emigrating from Sweden could very well have been called Jack in the US, simply because it sounded similar. Think about it; if your name is Jakob, and you move to a new town where people have trouble pronouncing your name, which would you rather accept - being called Jack, which sounds fairly similar, or John, which sounds more like Johan, which isn't your name at all?
 
(Update: If this question is related to Eileen's question here, my guess is definitely that Jackson was Jakobsson in Sweden rather than Johansson.)
 
(Meddelandet ändrat av acb 2009-10-24 19:56)

[Anders Karlsson]

Under these circumstances I agree, that a Swedish boy named Jakob, could be called Jack in the US. However Johan is, or at least was, a much more common name in Sweden than Jakob.

[Eileen Cook]

This such good information you have all submitted about my query.  The reason I was interested in Jack was that the gentleman in question used the surname Jackson when he arrived in North America.  This is why I wondered what his father's given name would have been to translate to Jack--son.
I appreciate everyone's input.   Eileen