Jan (name)

Pronunciation	IPA: [ˈjan] or [ˈja:n]
Gender	Male
Word/name	Dutch
Meaning	God is Gracious
Related names	John, Evan, Giovanni, Hans, Juan, , Ian, Ioan, Ioane, Ivan, Iven, Ifan, Jack, Jackson, Jane, Janez, Jean, , Joan, João, Johan/Johann, Johanan, Johannes, Jonne, Jovan, Juhani, Seán, Shane, Siôn, Yahya, Yohannes

Jan (pronouncedYann or Yaan) is a variant of John in various languages and is a short version of Johannes.

The name is used in Afrikaans, Belarusian, Circassian, Catalan, Cornish, Czech, Devon dialect, Dutch, German, Polish, Slovenian and Scandinavian languages. The Slovak spelling is Ján. In English it is a shortened form of the first names Janice, January or Janet with corresponding pronunciation. It has a separate origin in Arabic.

In The Netherlands, the name used to be one of the most popular given first names. From the 1950s the occurrence of the name decreased. In 2014, no more than 3% of the boys are given this name. However, it still is one of the most widely distributed names. It is also the most common name of Dutch players in the national team. Other very common first names for males are Piet, Wim and Henk.

The name Jan is sometimes combined with another first name, such as in Jan Peter (for instance in Jan Peter Balkenende), or in Klaas Jan (for instance in Klaas Jan Huntelaar). Very rarely the name Jan is given to a girl, as variants like Jannie or Janneke are more common.

Because the name is so common, the name is used in many expressions, such as "Jan met de pet" (Jan with a cap on its head), standing for a common person, generally from a lower social class, or "Jan en alleman" (Jan and all other people), standing for everybody.

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