Ian

Ian
Gender Male
Origin
Word/Name Hebrew (via Scottish Gaelic)
Meaning God is gracious
Other names
Related names John

"Ian", "Iain", or "Eian" or "Eion"(Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈɪʲən], English: /ˈiː.ən/) is the Scottish Gaelic version of the name John. It is a very common name in much of the English-speaking world. In the United Kingdom, Ian was the 19th most common male name, taking account of the whole population (over 300,000 Ians in total).

The name has now fallen out of the top 100 male baby names in the UK, having peaked in popularity as one of the top 10 names throughout the 1960s,[1] while remaining roughly constant in popularity in the USA.

Popularity of the name 'Ian' in the USA
Year Rank
2007 74
2006 81
2005 68
2004 69
2003 65
2002 67
2001 70
2000 73
1999 72
1998 73
1997 60
Note: Rank 1 is the most popular,
rank 2 is the next most popular, and so forth.
Name data are from Social Security card applications
for births that occurred in the United States.
Source: Social Security Administration.
See http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames

Other Gaelic forms of "John" include "Seonaidh" ("Johnny" from Lowland Scots), "Seon" (from English), "Seathan", and "Seán" and "Eoin" (from Irish). In Greek 'Yanis' or 'Ianis' or 'Ioannis' is a particularly common name. Its Welsh counterpart is Ioan, and the French equivalent is Yann.

Many Armenian surnames end in -ian (such as Kardashian), as "ian" (or "yan") means "son of" in Armenian.

Contents

Notable Ians

As a first name (alphabetical by family name)

As a middle name

As a surname

Notable Iains

Fictional Ians

References

  1. ^ [1]

See also