Jean
Meaning
“God is gracious”
Jean around the world
One shared root links 47 names across 10 languages.
Shared root: from Hebrew Yochanan "God is gracious", carried through Greek Ioannes and Latin Iohannes into nearly every European language
The constellation
38 more branches of this family
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Jean peaked in the 1890s and the 1900s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
171,850 people · the #193 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,182 · median age 28
Among people named Jean living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 3,944 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Jean
Most people given the name Jean in the United States were born between 1940 and 1969. The Jean you meet today is most often in his 60s or 70s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Jean deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Jean truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Jean fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Jean travels
Haitian · God is gracious (French form of John); the foundational Haitian Catholic given name, often paired as Jean-Baptiste or Jean-Pierre
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