Jos changed his name. After leaving home and arriving at college he jumped on his bicycle and went off to the county courthouse where he changed his name. It cost him $200 and a couple trips back to the courthouse.

What? You couldn't find the name "Dianovich", even using the world's biggest search engine?

Jos's mother is of Russian ancestry. In Russia, if your name is Dimitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, it means that your first name is Dimitry and your father's first name is Ivan. I don't think the Russians have any Dianovich, meaning someone whose mother is Diane. But they would understand it. As Jos did. His mother is Diane. "Johannes Dianovich" means Johannes son of Diane. "Josmom" is her handle.

He never liked his given name, "Jeremy David". His popster had advised him to wait until the day he went to college and got all new friends. Then change his name. So he did.

So how did he come up with that name?

The name "Johannes" is a classic name in his father's ancestry. In Holland, "Jos" is a common nickname for Johannes. "Jos" is pronounced "Yohs" as in Yossel's Toessels.

We could only guess why he chose Dianovich. We guessed it was to balance his karma and to honor his mother. Finally in the year 2006 we heard from an old friend of his, Anne-Marie Davidson who told us

We had talked about him changing his name, or at least he told me that he was doing it and why... and yes, the Dianovich was "son of Diane" and because of his mother - at that, he then had both of his parents and their heritage represented, and he had a name he liked. But he said he'd long been Jos anyway, so it made more sense. At least to him!

In 2009 we heard much the same from his friend Padgett Arango who wrote

He explained that he'd never liked Jeremy, so decided he'd legally change his name to Johannes once he was in college. Once he had the paperwork, he realized he could just as easily change his middle name at the same time, so changed his middle name to Dianovich to honor his mom and her Russian heritage (since he didn't want her to be slighted by his choice of a Dutch name).

That is how was born the name of Johannes Dianovich Claerbout.