Hans

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Boy · Hebrew, through German

Hans

Say it: HAHNS

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Short form of Johannes, from Hebrew Yohanan 'Yahweh is gracious'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Blessed

The everyman's name of German-speaking lands for centuries.

Its wave through time

Most used in the 1880s

In the United States

01020304018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1885per 100,000 babies of that sex
  • 14,991 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1885, about 1 in 3,300 boys
  • 114 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  2. The Renaissance1400 to 1600
  3. The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
  4. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  5. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

GermanAustrianSwissDanishDutch

The family of the name

DanishHans
DutchHans
SwedishHans

Famous bearers

  • Hans Holbein the Younger, painter
  • Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Parish baptism registers
  • National birth statistics of European countries source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.