Ian
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Scottish Gaelic form of John; cognate with Irish Eoin; occasionally used in Ireland
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/aɪən/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Ian is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Czechia than in any other country. In the United Kingdom it is the 29th most common given name.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 315(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 1.5K
- DKDenmark1 in 167as Jan
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Ian itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Czechia (measured from records)
- #463 (measured from records)
- 8 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 609 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 315 (inferred from the name graph)
587,876 named Jan
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled יאן in PL Poland.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Scottish Gaelic form of John; cognate with Irish Eoin; occasionally used in Ireland. The Irish form is from O'Sullivan's diary.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Ian counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CZ Czechia | — | 587,876as Jan | 1 in 18 | 588K | — | 2 |
| PL Poland | — | 462,503as Jan | 1 in 83 | 470K | יאן | 13 |
| US United States | #392 | 222,811 | 1 in 1.5K | 222K | Ian | 609 |
| GB United Kingdom | #29 | ≈210,000 est. | ≈1 in 315 | 61 | Ian | 417 |
| SE Sweden | — | 123,701as Jan | 1 in 82 | 124K | Ian | 99 |
| NO Norway | — | 43,472as Jan | 1 in 126 | 103K | Ian | 75 |
| DK Denmark | #470 | 35,210as Jan | 1 in 167 | 35K | Ian | 105 |
587,876 people counted by MVČR — living population register 2017. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); MVČR — living population register 2017; dane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20); dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Ian is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, A male given name from Scottish Gaelic Eòin, equivalent to English John.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Italian, forma popular e coloquial; redução de Ianni
as a nameDicionário dos sobrenomes italianos
In Swedish, Ian är en skotsk variant av det engelska → John (→ Johannes). En känd namnbärare är den brittiske skådespelaren Ian McKellen (f. 1939). I den finlandssvenska almanackan 24 juni.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
In English, African king who loved Queen Dido
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In English, Prometheus; satellite of Saturn
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Ian Flemingb. 1908GBBritish author (1908–1964)
- Ian Bannenb. 1928GBScottish actor (1928–1999)
- Ian McKellenb. 1939GBBritish actor (born 1939)
- Ian Wilmutb. 1944GBBritish embryologist (1944–2023)
- Ian McEwanb. 1948GBBritish author (born 1948)
- Ian Charlesonb. 1949GBScottish actor (1949-1990)
- Ian Khamab. 1953BWBotswana politician
- Ian Somerhalderb. 1978USAmerican actor (born 1978)
- Ian Thorpeb. 1982AUAustralian swimmer
- James Nortonb. 1985GBnot in their usual nameBritish actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 117 sources across 63 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 222K | #251 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 3.9K | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 3.2K | #788 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 1.9K | #1,123 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 1.6K | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20) | 2026 | 1.1K | #464 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 996 | #473 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 927 | #342 |
| NO Norway | SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891) | 2025 | 682 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 649 | #251 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 108 | #1,302 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 14 | #21,709 |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What are other forms of the name Ian?
- In the etymology graph, John, Juan and Ivan are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Where does the name Ian come from?
- Scottish Gaelic form of John; cognate with Irish Eoin; occasionally used in Ireland. The Irish form is from O'Sullivan's diary. Recorded by Irish first names.
- Is Ian a male or female name?
- Ian is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Ian have the most bearers?
- In Czechia, the national register counted about 588 thousand people named Jan, more than in any other country we hold.
- How do you pronounce Ian?
- A machine transcription gives /aɪən/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Ian mean?
- Recorded meaning: Scottish Gaelic form of John; cognate with Irish Eoin; occasionally used in Ireland.
- How common is the name Ian?
- In the United States, the national register counted 222,811 people named Ian in 2020, about 1 in 1.5 thousand residents.
- How common is Ian compared with other names?
- In the United Kingdom, Ian is the 29th most common given name of 404,737 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Ian?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ianThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Ian” — the 29th most common given name in United Kingdom. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.