Monash was born in Dudley Street, West Melbourne, Victoria, on 27 June 1865, the son of Louis Monash and his wife Bertha, née Manasse. He was born to Jewish parents, both from Krotoschin in the Prussian province of Posen (now Krotoszyn, Poland); the family name was originally spelt "Monasch" and pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable. The family spoke German as their native language. As might have been expected from a man brought up by cultivated German parents who had arrived in Australia barely two years before John's birth, Monash spoke, read, and wrote German fluently. However, from 1914 until his death, he had no good reason to attract attention to his German background.