Iwan
Derived from the Hebrew name Ioan and meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 14 living Americans carry the first name Iwan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Iwan today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Iwan births was 1958 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Iwan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Iwan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Iwan. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
14
~ 1 in 24,482,453 Americans
Peak year
1958
5 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2018 SSA rank
#12,923
Tracked since 1958
Census
Iwan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 272 people with the first name Iwan, which placed it at #31,478 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#31,478
National first-name rank
People counted
272
272 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
48.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Iwan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iwan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 48.2%. The next largest groups are White (41.5%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Iwan described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Iwan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander48.2% · 131
- White41.5% · 113
- Two or more races3.7% · 10
- Black or African American3.3% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 9
Popularity
Iwan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Iwan from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 10 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Iwan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Iwan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Iwans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Iwan
The name Iwan is a variant spelling of the more common Ivan, which originated as a Slavic name derived from the Greek name Ioannes (John). Its origins can be traced back to the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name Iwan reflects the spelling and pronunciation commonly used in various Eastern European languages and cultures.
The earliest recorded use of the name Iwan dates back to the 10th century in medieval Slavic regions, such as ancient Rus', where it was adopted and popularized as a Christian name after the conversion to Orthodox Christianity. The name gained widespread use in countries like Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and other Slavic nations.
One of the earliest and most notable historical figures bearing the name Iwan was Ivan I of Moscow (1288-1340), a Grand Prince of Moscow who played a significant role in the consolidation of the medieval Russian state. Another prominent figure was Ivan III of Moscow (1440-1505), known as Ivan the Great, who further expanded the Grand Duchy of Moscow and laid the foundations for the future Russian Empire.
In the realm of literature, the name Iwan has been immortalized in works such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov," where one of the main characters is named Ivan Karamazov. This literary character has become a cultural icon, representing intellectual skepticism and moral anguish.
Other notable historical figures with the name Iwan include Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584), the first Tsar of All Russia, whose reign was marked by territorial expansion and brutal repression. Iwan Pawlow (1849-1936) was a Russian physiologist who made significant contributions to the study of classical conditioning and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904.
Iwan Wyhowski (1608-1668) was a Ukrainian Cossack leader and hetman who played a pivotal role in the struggles against Polish rule in the mid-17th century. Iwan Bunin (1870-1953) was a Russian writer and poet who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933 for his masterful prose and poetic works.
People
Iwan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Iwan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Iwan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Iwan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Iwan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 24,482,453 US residents.
Is Iwan a common name?
We classify Iwan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 34% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Iwan most popular?
The single biggest year for Iwan was 1958, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Iwan is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Iwan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 272 people with the name Iwan, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,478 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Iwan in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Iwan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Iwan appears almost entirely male. Of the 269 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Iwan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Iwan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 48.2%. The next largest groups are White (41.5%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Iwan most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Iwan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.2% (131 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Iwan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Iwan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Iwan in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Iwan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Iwan in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Iwan can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Iwan?
You can see how many people have the name Iwan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.