Spann
surname · Latin script
Meaning: from ahd. spannan 'to lure, entice'
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 11 countries · latest register: Grenada, 2025
Spann is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- GDGrenada1 in 8.1K(measured from records)
- GHGhana≈1 in 12Kfew records
- JMJamaica≈1 in 23Kfew records
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 414 (measured from records)
- 1 in 8.1K (inferred from the name graph)
12,457 people, 2010
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Grenada
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)from ahd. spannan 'to lure, entice'
Cited for this meaning 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Spann 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 12,457 | 1 in 27K | 12K | Spann | 414 |
| GH Ghana | #907 | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | Spann | 3 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 48K | 214 | Spann | 76 |
| DE Germany | — | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 74K | — | Spann | 73 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈950 est. | ≈1 in 40K | — | Spann | 31 |
| GA Gabon | — | ≈210 est. | ≈1 in 11K | — | Spann | 5 |
| JM Jamaica | #836 | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 23K | — | Spann | 1 |
| GD Grenada | — | 14 | 1 in 8.1K | 14 | — | 1 |
12,457 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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 — Surname Frequency 2010; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); Grenada — Consolidated List of Electors December 2025. 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)Spann 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 ang, span (of a hand; used as a measurement, typically considered about nine inches)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In non, first/third-person singular past active indicative of spinna
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, first/third-person singular preterite of spinnen
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Icelandic, first-person singular past indicative of spinna
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Faroese, bucket, pail
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)- Othmar Spannb. 1878ATAustrian philosopher (1878-1950)
- Otis Spannb. 1930USAmerican Chicago blues pianist (1930–1970)
- Pervis Spannb. 1932USmusic promoter
- Gary Spannb. 1963USAmerican football player
- Johnny Micheal Spannb. 1969USCIA Agent (1969–2001)
- Silvio Spannb. 1981TTTrinidad and Tobago association football player
- Andreas Spannb. 1984DEGerman footballer
- Scott Spannb. 1988USAmerican swimmer, Olympic athlete, Pan American Games bronze medalist
- Chad Spannb. 1988USplayer of American football
- Aaron Spannb. 1990USAmerican 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)Evidence
(measured from records)19 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 11 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 12K | #2,882 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 12K | #2,970 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 12K | #2,815 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 214 | #20,403 |
| GD Grenada | Grenada — Consolidated List of Electors December 2025 | 2025 | 14 | #209 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname 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 does the name Spann mean, and where does it come from?
- from ahd. spannan 'to lure, entice' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- In which country does Spann have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 12 thousand people named Spann, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled spann.
- Where is Spann most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Spann is densest in Grenada — about 1 in 8.1 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Spann?
- In the United States, the national register counted 12,457 people named Spann in 2010, about 1 in 27 thousand residents.
- How common is Spann compared with other names?
- In Jamaica, Spann is the 836th most common surname of 50,451 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Spann?
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/spannThe 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, “Spann” — the 836th most common surname in Jamaica. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.