Van - Meaning of Van

What does Van mean?

[ 1 syll. van, va-n ] The baby boy name Van is sometimes used as a girl name. Its pronunciation is VaeN †. Van is used chiefly in the English language, and its origin is Celtic and Old English. The name is of debated origin; it could have first developed from Vance or Ivan. As a surname prefix, it means 'of' or 'from' in Dutch.

In addition, Van is a variant of the name Donovan (English and Irish) in the English language.

Van is also a pet form of the name Evan (Scottish, English, and Welsh) in the English language.

Van is also a contraction of the name Ivan (Belorussian, Czech, English, Russian, Slavic, and Ukrainian) in the English language.

Van is also a contraction of the name Vance (English).

Vann (English variant spelling) is a form of Van.

See also the related categories, english, prefix, celtic, and dutch.

Van is a classic favorite. At present it is still a somewhat popular baby name for boys, though not to the extent it was before. In 1900, 0.035% of baby boys were given the name Van. Its ranking then was #273. The baby name has since suffered a steep fall in popularity, and is of irregular use in recent years. In 2018, its usage was only 0.014% and its ranking #827. Out of the group of boy names directly linked to Van, Evan was the most popular. In 2018, its use outnumbered Van's by 16 times. In the past century Van has predominantly been a baby boy name.

Baby names that sound like Van include Vann, Vãn, Vain, Vane, Vaughan, Vaughn, Vaune, Vawn, Vawne, Vien, Vin, Vinh, Vinn, Von, Vonne, Wim, Vahane, Vahann, Vaino, and Vama.

† Pronunciation for Van: V as in "vow (V.AW)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)"

Details of famous persons named Van:
Actor Van Heflin, born Emmett Evan Heflin, December 13, 1910 - July 23, 1971, the award-winning actor in the film Johnny Eager (1942).
Singer Van Morrison, born George Ivan Morrison, 31 August 1945, Belfast, Ireland.



Meaning of Van Meaning of Vann Meaning of Van Meaning of Ivan Meaning of Vance Meaning of Evan Meaning of Donovan
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