Yvan
A masculine name of Old French origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 485 living Americans carry the first name Yvan. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Yvan today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yvan births was 2020 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yvan. 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.
People living today
485
~ 1 in 706,710 Americans
Peak year
2020
17 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,210
Tracked since 1961
Gender
Gender distribution for Yvan
Yvan leans heavily male at 99.0% of total registrations, but 5 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Yvan as a male name
- Ranked #7,210 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (17 births)
Yvan as a female name
- Ranked #15,860 in 1996
- 5 female births in 1996
- Peak: 1996 (5 births)
Popularity
Yvan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yvan from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 114 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Yvan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yvan 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 Yvan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yvans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yvan
The given name Yvan has its origins in the Slavic languages, deriving from the Slavic root "ivan," which means "grace of God" or "God is gracious." This name first emerged during the Middle Ages in regions with significant Slavic cultural influence, such as Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Yvan can be found in the 12th-century Russian chronicles, where it was used as a variant spelling of the more common Ivan. Over time, the name spread to other Slavic-speaking areas, including parts of modern-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus.
In the 14th century, the name Yvan gained prominence in France, where it was adopted as a French variant of the Slavic Ivan. This was likely due to cultural exchanges and intermarriages between French nobility and their Slavic counterparts during this period.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Yvan was Yvan Kalita, a Grand Prince of Moscow who ruled from 1328 to 1340. He was a key figure in the consolidation of Russian lands and the expansion of Muscovite power.
Another historically significant bearer of the name was Yvan the Terrible, also known as Ivan IV Vasilyevich, who ruled as Tsar of Russia from 1533 to 1584. His reign was marked by both territorial expansion and brutal suppression of dissent.
In the realm of literature, the French writer Yvan Goll (1891-1950) was a prominent figure in the Surrealist movement. His works, which often explored themes of social justice and human rights, had a significant impact on 20th-century poetry.
The name Yvan also found its way into the world of science, with Yvan Petrovich Semyonov (1914-1994), a Soviet physicist who made notable contributions to the field of chemical kinetics and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1956.
In the world of sports, Yvan Cournoyer (born 1943) was a Canadian ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens and was part of the team's famous "Flying Frenchmen" line. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1982.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Yvan
People
Yvan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yvan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yvan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yvan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 485 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yvan 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 706,710 US residents.
Is Yvan a common name?
We classify Yvan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 498 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yvan most popular?
The single biggest year for Yvan was 2020, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yvan is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Yvan a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Yvan 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.
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.