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Because Jack is the nickname for John; i.e. "Jack Kennedy". It comes from the French name "Jaques", which is the same name as "John" in English.

Edit in response to tattoohead: Way back in 1066 AD England was conquered by french-speaking Normans. For hundreds of years after that, England was a bilingual nation; they spoke both French and English. That is how "John" and "Jaques" came to be interchangeable.
The answers above are totally incorrect. Jacques is not related to John at all - the French form of the name John is Jean.
I believe this is the correct answer.

Before the 17th century or so, the most common diminutive endings were the Norman/English "in" or "kin"
Jack, for instance, was originally from the name Jakin, a corrupted form of Jenkin (John+kin). And the name Hank is short for Han-Kin, or Hen-kin, or Henry-kin
Might as well ask why Chuck is short for Charles.

I agree. The first answer is completely wrong.
Jacques is in fact the French version of James, not John, nor Jack. While Jack does come from Jakin, or Jakken from the German, but I don't believe it is a "corrupted form of Jenkin (John+kin)."
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14y ago
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11y ago

Yes. Jack is a standard nickname for John. (Compare Dick and Richard or Jim and James )

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Q: Why is jack a nickname for John?
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