Jan
- Pronunciation
- [Jan, Yahn]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Dutch Form Of John, "The Lord Is Gracious."
- Origin
- Dutch
About the Name Jan
Jan is the Dutch and widely Central European form of John, from the Hebrew Yochanan, meaning "the Lord is gracious" or "God is gracious." One of the most enduring of all names in its many forms, Jan offers a crisp, single-syllable European take on the John tradition, pronounced "yahn" in its homeland and instantly recognizable across much of the world. It is simple, dignified, and deeply rooted, a name that has crossed centuries and borders with ease.
The name is carried by accomplished bearers. Jan Tinbergen was a Dutch economist and physicist who, with Norwegian economist Ragnar Frisch, was awarded the inaugural Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969 for developing and applying dynamic models. Jan van Riebeeck was a Dutch surgeon, merchant, and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company who in 1652 established a victualling station at the Cape.
In the United States, Jan first entered the Social Security top-1000 as a boys' name in 2000, peaked in 2006 at rank #758, and left the list after 2008, when it sat at #970. Across its run it was given to roughly 1,707 boys who reached the top-1000. Recorded variants and related forms include Hans and Janos, the German and Hungarian counterparts of the same gracious and time-honored name.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jan
US Popularity History (2000–2008)
Annual US births named Jan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2006 with 279 boys named Jan (boy rank #758 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2008, ranked #970 for boys (206 US births). That's 212 places below its 2006 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
Famous People Named Jan
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Jan.
- Jan Tinbergen was the first recipient of Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences, is a name to reckon with.
- Jan van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial administrator who established the city of Cape Town in South Africa.
Looking for names like Jan?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Jan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jan against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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