Ian

222,811 people in America carry this name — ranked #251 of 923.

Carried mostly by Generation Z.

Say it EE uhn

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

IY1 AH0 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 222,811 2020 Census
  • Rank #251 Common
  • Per 100,000 73.8 about 1 in 1,488 people

What Ian means and where it comes from

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “grace of the Lord”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Ian through the years

236,523 babies were given this name since 1912. The busiest year was 2005, with 6,702 of them.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00s 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Ian

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Ian Nicholas — runs together
  • Ian Nathan — runs together
  • Ian Noah — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Boys or girls: who is called Ian?

99.7% men
649 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

This name in other languages

  • Jan Nor.|Dutch|Eng
  • Ans Lett
  • Jens Danish
  • Jean French
  • Ivka Ill
  • Hans Ger.|Dutch
  • Eoin Irish
  • Ants Esth
  • Shawn Ir
  • Jehan French
  • Janos Hungarian
  • Janne Danish
  • Janke Lus
  • Janez Slov

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Names with the same rhythm as Ian

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The states where Ian is most common

In Hawaii the name is given 1.9 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Hawaii ×1.9
  • New Hampshire ×1.9
  • Alaska ×1.8
  • Vermont ×1.8
  • Maine ×1.6

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Try it Compare Two Names

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Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin