Evan

//ˈɛ.vən// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A male given name from Welsh Ifan, equivalent to English John.

    "The rescue swimmer was Coast Guard third petty officer Evan Grills. He was 24 years old, he came from Florida and this was his first rescue."

  2. 2
    A city in Minnesota, United States; named for the first postmaster's wife, Eva.
  3. 3
    A surname, a variant of Evans.

Example

More examples

"Evan is just a little boy. How should he know what to do?"

Etymology

Anglicization of Welsh Ifan, ultimately from Latin Jōhannēs, variant of Iōannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (yōḥānān, yokhanán, literally “God is gracious”). Doublet of Giovanni, Ian, Ivan, Jack, Jean, Johan, Johann, Johannes, John, Sean, Shane, Shaun, and Shawn.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.