Çan

loc · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Çan is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Türkiye it is the 82nd most common given name. Recorded meaning: bell (metallic resonating object).

rarermore common
  • TRTürkiye≈1 in 1.5K(inferred from the name graph)
  • CYCyprus≈1 in 1.9K
  • ATAustria≈1 in 5.8K

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.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈100,000 people, est.

Sources
228 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 1.5K (inferred from the name graph)

Türkiye, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Can in TR Türkiye, DE Germany, US United States and 4 more.

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)

bell (metallic resonating object)

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Çan 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.

Where Çan is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈100,000 est.≈1 in 13K—Can93
TR Türkiye#82≈53,000 est.≈1 in 1.5K230KCan175
DE Germany#586≈12,000 est.≈1 in 6.6K—Can172
AF Afghanistan#324≈5,700 est.≈1 in 6.4K—Can5
US United States—2,4081 in 138K1.8KCan228
AT Austria#534≈1,500 est.≈1 in 5.8K384Can56
CY Cyprus#102≈660 est.≈1 in 1.9K—Can32

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: TÜİK NIP — most used surnames; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Çan is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Indonesian given name12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, India, Indonesia, Malaysia

    Also written Can, Cañ, C'An, Cần, Cẩn

  • Bulgarian given name54 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia

    Languages: Bulgarian, Polish, Croatian

    Also written Can, Dzhan, Джан, Чан, Džan

  • French given name6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Türkiye, Belgium, United States

    Also written Can, C'An, Cañ, Cần, Ç'An

  • Urdu given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, India, United States, Afghanistan

    Also written Can, Cañ, Cận

  • Turkmen given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Turkmenistan

    Also written Can, Cañ

  • a separate name20 spellings in the group

    Also written Cañ, Can, Čan, Ĉan, Cận

  • Khmer given name12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Türkiye, United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Can, Ćań, Çâñ, Çạn, Čãn

16 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Çan is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In otk, bell, cymbals, and the like

    as a wordClauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish (1972)

  • In otk, a wine cup

    as a wordClauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish (1972)

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)

0500100015002000Zhang Qian, b. 200Jang Sung-taek, b. 1946Zhang Yimou, b. 1950William Chang, b. 1953Yitang Zhang, b. 1955Leslie Cheung, b. 1956Maggie Cheung, b. 1964Michael Chang, b. 1972Chang Chen, b. 1976Meng'er Zhang, b. 1987
  • Zhang Qianb. 200CNnot in their usual nameimperial envoy to the world outside of China in the 2nd century BC
  • Jang Sung-taekb. 1946KPnot in their usual nameNorth Korean government official (1946–2013)
  • Zhang Yimoub. 1950CNnot in their usual nameChinese filmmaker
  • William Changb. 1953CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong film editor, costume designer and production designer
  • Yitang Zhangb. 1955CNnot in their usual nameChinese-born American mathematician
  • Leslie Cheungb. 1956CNnot in their usual nameHong Kong singer and actor (1956–2003)
  • Maggie Cheungb. 1964GBnot in their usual nameHong Kong actress
  • Michael Changb. 1972USnot in their usual nameAmerican tennis player (born 1972)
  • Chang Chenb. 1976TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese actor
  • Meng'er Zhangb. 1987CNnot in their usual nameChinese actress

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 6 sources across 2 countries.

Reference works 1

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007

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 Çan mean, and where does it come from?
bell (metallic resonating object) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Çan have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 104 thousand people named Çan in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled can.
How common is the name Çan?
In the United States, the national register counted 2,408 people named Çan in 2020, about 1 in 138 thousand residents.
How common is Çan compared with other names?
In Türkiye, Çan is the 82nd most common given name of 264,080 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Çan?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/%C3%A7an

The 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, “Çan” — the 82nd most common given name in Türkiye. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Çan parses inside a full name →