Jai Courtney

Jai Courtney

Courtney in 2014, photo by Prphotos

Birth Name: Jai Stephen Courtney

Place of Birth: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Date of Birth: 15 March, 1986

Ethnicity: British Isles, one quarter Italian

Jai Courtney is an Australian actor and model. He is the son of Karen and Chris Courtney. Jai has said, “My [paternal] grandmother’s Italian and I grew up eating pasta several times a week.” Jai’s surname can be English or Irish.

He was named after the character “Jai” from a 1960s television series version of Tarzan.

11 Responses

  1. Oaken05 says:

    Anyone want to drill down to see if we can define this “British Isles” ancestry? Doing a little research on the surname Courtney, it seems that it’s either an old Norman French-in-England surname or an Anglicization of the Irish name “O’Curnain.” So either English or Irish.

    If anyone can find his grandparents, that would be great.

    • bablah says:

      I have an inkling that his paternal grandparents were Ronald Victor Newell-Courtney and Mary Rando. They married in 1956, and Jai’s father was born in 1957. His father’s name is Christopher Paul Courtney, and there’s a Christopher Paul Newell-Courtney appearing on the Australian electoral rolls on ancestry.com.

      Ronald’s parents were Gordon Edward Newell-Courtney and Marjorie Rae. Gordon’s parents were George Courtney and Ellen. According to The AIF Project, Gordon was a Roman Catholic, so it’s possible (but not necessarily) that he was Irish. Marjorie was of Scottish and English descent, her parents being James Hastie Rae and Jessie Mary Tribe.

  2. Kimmel says:

    I thought he was an Serbian-Aussie.

  3. andrew says:

    his parents are Chris Courtney and Karen. The surname can be Irish too.

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