Ian

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Primarily a boy's name · 100% boys

Origin: English

Meaning

Ian or Iain is a male name of Scottish Gaelic origin, which is derived from the Hebrew given name ื™ื•ึนื—ึธื ึธืŸโ€Ž and corresponds to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename Iain.

From Wikipedia

Ian first appears in the data in 1952 and has been recorded in 42 different years as a boy's name. Its single biggest year was 1960 with 1,062 babies (rank #11 that year). It was not in the 2025 data. The name has been declining over the last five years.

Numerology of Ian

In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of Ian yields these three numbers โ€” a playful read on the name's character.

19,468
Total babies (all years)
42
Years in the data
1,062
Peak in a single year

Popularity Over Time โ€” Boys

Also a character in

Famous people named Ian

→ See names similar to Ian  ·  Compare Ian with another name โ†’  ·  Popular names of the 1960s  ·  Boys names starting with I

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Other boys' names starting with I

Year-by-Year Detail

Rank is among all boys' names registered that year.

Year Babies Rank
1952748#10
1953800#10
1954804#9
1955829#10
1956818#10
1957756#12
1958754#12
1959739#12
19601,062#11
19611,009#11
1962888#16
1963845#16
1964785#17
1965766#20
1966651#21
1967597#23
1968637#22
1969555#25
1970489#28
1971495#31
1972409#33
1973341#38
1974313#45
1975273#45
1976276#45
1977271#47
1978270#49
1979227#54
1980257#49
1981275#49
1982233#56
1983229#58
1984187#66
1985205#60
1986205#60
1987156#77
1988157#76
1989143#81
20143#421
20154#352
20164#356
20173#436