Yan
Yan was given to 58 boys in 2025, #2,386 among boys’ names; 1,085 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,060 Americans named Yan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 8 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Yan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Yan is “a male given name, equivalent to English John.”
Also “a transliteration of the Belarusian, Russian, or Ukrainian male given name Ян (Jan)”
/jæn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Yan?
#2,386 among boys’ names, 2025
Yan rose from #5,277 in 2015 to #2,386 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 9.4 to 34.0 per million.
58 babies in 2025, the peak
Yan peaked in 2025, when 58 boys were given it, #2,386 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 44 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 58 | #2,386 | 34.0 |
| 2024 | 44 | #2,909 | 25.5 |
| 2023 | 44 | #2,892 | 25.7 |
| 2022 | 28 | #3,986 | 16.0 |
| 2021 | 25 | #4,236 | 14.3 |
| 2020 | 25 | #4,131 | 14.5 |
| 2019 | 24 | #4,324 | 13.4 |
| 2018 | 34 | #3,367 | 18.7 |
| 2017 | 35 | #3,309 | 18.9 |
| 2016 | 30 | #3,677 | 15.8 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 | #5,277 | 9.4 |
| 2014 | 29 | #3,687 | 15.1 |
| 2013 | 21 | #4,613 | 11.1 |
| 2012 | 24 | #4,242 | 12.7 |
| 2011 | 26 | #3,984 | 13.7 |
| 2010 | 27 | #3,890 | 14.1 |
| 2009 | 28 | #3,824 | 14.1 |
| 2008 | 26 | #4,037 | 12.7 |
| 2007 | 28 | #3,789 | 13.5 |
| 2006 | 33 | #3,302 | 16.1 |
| 2005 | 29 | #3,442 | 14.5 |
| 2004 | 26 | #3,628 | 13.1 |
| 2003 | 27 | #3,436 | 13.7 |
| 2002 | 26 | #3,442 | 13.4 |
| 2001 | 24 | #3,610 | 12.4 |
| 2000 | 12 | #5,895 | 6.1 |
| 1999 | 12 | #5,640 | 6.2 |
| 1998 | 9 | #6,818 | 4.7 |
| 1997 | 9 | #6,593 | 4.8 |
| 1996 | 19 | #3,668 | 10.0 |
| 1995 | 11 | #5,486 | 5.8 |
| 1994 | 9 | #6,347 | 4.7 |
| 1993 | 9 | #6,206 | 4.6 |
| 1990 | 12 | #4,659 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 15 | #3,800 | 7.5 |
| 1988 | 6 | #7,240 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 16 | #3,192 | 8.6 |
| 1986 | 16 | #3,124 | 8.7 |
| 1985 | 12 | #3,796 | 6.5 |
| 1984 | 15 | #3,100 | 8.3 |
| 1983 | 9 | #4,492 | 5.0 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,613 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 12 | #3,597 | 6.7 |
| 1980 | 13 | #3,428 | 7.3 |
| 1979 | 12 | #3,561 | 7.0 |
| 1977 | 7 | #5,112 | 4.3 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,643 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Yan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,085 Americans recorded as Yan, 9% are girls and 91% boys. In 2025 it went to 58 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Yan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yan, and how old are they?
1,060 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,085 Americans ever recorded as Yan. The median Yan alive today is 17 years old; half are between 8 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 16,856 people named Yan (12,028 women and girls, 4,828 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 853 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 34 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 169 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 433 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 428 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 4,411 babies since 1880, Yan is the second most given (25% of them). In 2025 it was given to 58 of their 308 babies (19%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Yan
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Yan and names like it
- Compare Yan and YohanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sYan peaked in 2025.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yan since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Yan.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Yan alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with YMost given first.