Devan
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Variant Of The English County Name Devon.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Devan
Devan is a variant spelling of Devon, a name that carries the green, sea-edged associations of the English county of Devonshire — one of the most scenically celebrated regions of southwest England, known for its moorland, dramatic coastline, and deep roots in Celtic and Roman history. The county name itself likely derives from the ancient Celtic tribal name Dumnonii, meaning "deep valley dwellers" or "the world beneath," though in American naming culture the geographic connection to Devon's pastoral landscape tends to overshadow the etymological detail. The spelling Devan — with the closing an — gives the name a slightly more name-like appearance than the place-name spelling, softening its identity as a topographic transfer.
Devon and its variants occupied a lively corner of American naming in the 1990s and 2000s, functioning as both a male and female name with modest but consistent use. The Devan spelling skewed male in this period, carrying a clean, one-word-name energy that fit the era's enthusiasm for place-derived and nature-connected names. Its two syllables, open vowel, and lack of complicated phonetics made it accessible across regional and cultural backgrounds.
Devan first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 and peaked in 2001 at #472. It held a top-1000 presence through 2012, sitting at #985 in its final tracked year, with around 4,901 top-1000 births accumulated over that span. The variant Devin represents the most widely used sibling spelling, having significantly outpaced Devan throughout their shared period of use.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Devan
US Popularity History (2000–2012)
Annual US births named Devan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2003 with 519 boys named Devan (boy rank #480 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2012, ranked #985 for boys (203 US births). That's 505 places below its 2003 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Devin | Poet | Male | Celtic |
Looking for names like Devan?
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Compare Devan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Devan against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).