Informal variant of Johnny, from Hebrew 'Yochanan' meaning God is gracious.
Johny is a phonetic respelling of Johnny, itself a pet form of John — one of the most consequential names in Western civilization. John descends from the Hebrew *Yohanan* (יוֹחָנָן), a compound of *Yahweh* and *hanan* meaning "God is gracious" or "Yahweh has shown favor." The name entered European usage through its Greek form *Ioannes* and Latin *Iohannes*, carried first by John the Baptist and John the Apostle, two figures so central to Christian theology that the name became virtually obligatory across Catholic Europe within a few centuries of the faith's spread.
John has been the given name of twenty-three popes, eight Holy Roman Emperors, and kings across England, France, Portugal, Scotland, and Sweden. But Johnny — and its variant Johny — represents the name's democratic twin: the version that belongs to the common man, the folk hero, the working-class kid. Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) became an American folk legend.
R. Cash but performing under the name Johnny, made the diminutive synonymous with American roots music. Johnny Depp, Johnny Unitas, Johnny Carson — the name accumulated a distinctly American cultural mythology.
The Johny spelling, dropping the second 'n,' has appeared throughout English-language records as a straightforward phonetic variant, common in informal usage and immigrant communities adapting names to new orthographic conventions. It preserves all the warmth and familiarity of Johnny while carrying a slightly individualized quality that sets any bearer apart from the crowd of more standardly spelled peers.