Nan
loc · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Nan is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Originally a pet form of Ann (for the initial N-, compare pNed).
- CNChina≈1 in 3.8K(inferred from the name graph)
- TWTaiwan≈1 in 14K
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 18K
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 Nan 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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 351 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 3.8K (inferred from the name graph)
≈360,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled 난주 in KR South Korea.
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)
Originally a pet form of Ann (for the initial N-, compare pNed). It is now also widely used as a short form of Nancy.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 27 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Nan 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ≈360,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.8K | — | Nan | 124 |
| US United States | 9,307 | 1 in 36K | 8.1K | Nan | 351 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈2,200 est. | ≈1 in 30K | listed | Nan | 110 |
| TW Taiwan | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 14K | — | Nan | 70 |
| KR South Korea | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 31K | 8 | 난주 | 60 |
| HK Hong Kong | ≈410 est. | ≈1 in 18K | — | Nan | 36 |
| NZ New Zealand | ≈270 est. | ≈1 in 19K | — | Nan | 43 |
| IS Iceland | ≈18 est. | ≈1 in 19K | 1 | Nan | 3 |
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; the gb-nisra-baby-names-ni register; KOSIS 2015 Census — surname population with hanja variants; Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). 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)
Nan 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.
The unattainable is more
as a nameThe African book of names
Llena de gracia
as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado
In cdo, To grasp Avitli the? hand ； vVppI in tlie coll. to pusli awiiy " or out, as with tlio liaiul or foot ； used for 〈nm"j in the coll. q. V. : c () I. L . , "、n(mfi ^Uvri^ to push open ； to pnsli, as a boat from tlic nliorc ； as ； I scn'oeii or sluitter ； '〜"〃/^/';， to push down. Boiled ilesli, driod meat; jij ^nWLQ 7"《， dried meat.
as a wordAn Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect
In cdo, benign, soothing, as medicine ； fed and clothed. Food presented to su- W periors : in the colU read to present food ； food pre- sented, as to a superior ； 、、""nwa/ng 、nil、 to send food to a daughter (three days after her marriage),
as a wordAn Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect
In Akan, tew, v. [inf. n-, red. nantenantew] to walk, to travel on foot; onantew dodo, onim udntew dodo, he is a good walker; rf nam; - red. to wander, rafnble, rove; cf. kyini
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
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)
- Ferdinand Verbiestb. 1623BEnot in their usual nameFlemish Jesuit missionary in Qing dynasty China (1623–1688)
- Nan Greyb. 1918USAmerican actress (1918-1993)
- Nan Martinb. 1927USAmerican actress (1927–2010)
- Deng Nanb. 1945CNdaughter of Deng Xiaoping
- Nan Goldinb. 1953USAmerican photographer (born 1953)
- Nan Hayworthb. 1959USAmerican politician
- Nan Yub. 1978CNChinese actress
- Wang Nanb. 1978CNChinese table tennis player (1978-)
- Daisy Ryanb. 1986USnot in their usual nameAmerican chef and restaurateur
- Zhang Nanb. 1990CNChinese badminton player
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 62 sources across 31 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 8.1K | #2,583 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.2K | #2,583 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 993 | #25,954 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 773 | #30,277 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 450 | #44,895 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2022 | 6 | — |
| IS Iceland | Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry) | 2023 | 1 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2019 | — | — |
Reference works 6
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
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
- Where does the name Nan come from?
- Originally a pet form of Ann (for the initial N-, compare pNed). It is now also widely used as a short form of Nancy. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- What does the name Nan mean?
- Recorded meaning: Originally a pet form of Ann (for the initial N-, compare pNed).
- In which country does Nan have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 365 thousand people named Nan in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nan.
- How common is the name Nan?
- In the United States, the national register counted 9,307 people named Nan in 2020, about 1 in 36 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Nan?
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/nanThe same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Nan”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.