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Dan is a name in various cultures. As a given name it is often short for Daniel. It is also a surname with multiple origins.


Given name


Origins as a given name

Dan is an old Scandinavian given name with several disputed origins. The most likely theory is that it originated from the Old Norse
ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
for
Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...
. This in turn originated from the Proto-Germanic masculine word *. There are several historical variants including "half-Dane", as well as * "Danish" (where the suffix is ancestral to modern English ). The name Dan is also a Hebrew given name, after Dan, the fifth son of Jacob with Bilhah and founder of the Israelite
Tribe of Dan The Tribe of Dan (, "Judge") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe initially settled in the hill lands bordering Tribe of Ephraim, Ephraim and Tribe of Benjamin, Benjamin on the ...
. It is also (along with the variant Danny) a given name or a nickname for people named Daniel or possibly
Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
.


Surname


Origins

As an
English surname English names are personal names used in, or originating in, England. In England, as elsewhere in the English-speaking world, a complete name usually consists of one or more given names, commonly referred to as first names, and a (most commonly ...
, Dan is a variant spelling of Dann. Dann, another variant spelling of which is Dane, is a
toponymic surname A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a surname or byname derived from a place name,
which originates from the
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...
and
Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
, "valley". The Hebrew surname Dan () is a biblical name which refers to the
tribe of Dan The Tribe of Dan (, "Judge") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe initially settled in the hill lands bordering Tribe of Ephraim, Ephraim and Tribe of Benjamin, Benjamin on the ...
. As a given name it first appears in Genesis 30. The
Hungarian surname Hungarian names include surnames and given names. Some people have more than one given name, but only one is normally used. In the Hungarian language, whether written or spoken, names are invariably given in the "Eastern name order", with the fa ...
Dán is an abbreviation of Dániel. Dan may be the spelling of multiple
Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicization, Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, ...
s, based on their pronunciation in different
varieties of Chinese There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...
; they are listed below by their spelling in
Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...
, which reflects the
standard Mandarin Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern Standard language, standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the Republic of ...
pronunciation: *Dān ( 'red') * () * Chén (/), spelled Dan based on its
Hainanese Hainanese ( Hainan Romanised: ''Hái-nâm-oe'', Hainanese Pinyin: ''Hhai3 nam2 ue1'', ), also known as Qiongwen (), Qiongyu () or Hainan Min () is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hain ...
pronunciation ( Hainanese Transliteration Scheme: ). This spelling is found for example in
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
. There are multiple
Japanese surname Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
s which are romanised as Dan, including: *, meaning '' Euonymus hamiltonianus'', and also used in the names of various species of other trees, including
sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods. Sanda ...
s * (
Kyūjitai ''Kyūjitai'' () are the traditional forms of kanji (Chinese written characters used in Japanese writing). Their simplified counterparts are '' shinjitai'' (). Some of the simplified characters arose centuries ago and were in everyday use in bot ...
: ), meaning "group" There are three separate
Korean surname This is a list of Korean surnames, in Hangul alphabetical order. The most common Korean surname (particularly in South Korea) is Kim (Korean name), Kim (), followed by Lee (Korean name), Lee () and Park (Korean surname), Park (). These three sur ...
s spelled in the
Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and w ...
as Dan (), each written with a different
hanja Hanja (; ), alternatively spelled Hancha, are Chinese characters used to write the Korean language. After characters were introduced to Korea to write Literary Chinese, they were adapted to write Korean as early as the Gojoseon period. () ...
. Bearers of each surname identify with a number of distinct ''
bon-gwan Korean clans are groups of Koreans, Korean people that share the same Patrilineality, paternal ancestor. They are indicated by the combination of a ''bongwan'' () and a family name. Korean clans distinguish clans that happen to share the same fam ...
'', which are hometowns of clan lineages. * The most common, (; ), means "stairs". This character is also used to write the Chinese surname now pronounced Duàn in Mandarin. Major clans with this surname include: **The Gangeum Dan clan ("Gangeum" being the Sino-Korean reading of the name of the city of Jiangyin in
Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...
, China), who claim descent from , a
Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
official whose great-great-grandson Dan Hui-sang was dispatched to Korea during the 1592–1598 Japanese invasions of Korea **The , who claim descent from Dan Gan-mok (), an official under Chungnyeol of Goryeo. * The second most common, (; ), means "single" or "one". This character is also used to write the Chinese surname now pronounced Shàn in Mandarin. * The least common, (; ), means "end".


Statistics

In
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
, the 2000 census found 1,429 people belonging to 437 households with the surname Dan meaning "stairs". There were also 122 people belonging to 40 households with the surname Dan meaning "single", and 34 people belonging to nine households with the surname Dan meaning "end". According to statistics cited by
Patrick Hanks Patrick Wyndham Hanks (24 March 1940 – 1 February 2024) was an English lexicographer, corpus linguist, and onomastician. He edited dictionaries of general language, as well as dictionaries of personal names. Background Hanks was educated a ...
, there were 284 people on the island of
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
and 13 people on the island of
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
with the surname Dan as of 2011. There had been 177 bearers of the surname in Great Britain in 1881, primarily in
Devonshire Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the wes ...
and
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
. The 2010 United States Census found 2,599 people with the surname Dan, making it the 12,012th-most-common name in the country. This represented an increase from 2,315 (12,317th-most-common) in the 2000 Census. In both censuses, about half of the bearers of the surname identified as White, and one-quarter as Asian. Dan was the 1,670th-most-common surname among respondents to the 2000 Census who identified as Asian.


People


Chinese surnames Dān () and Dàn ()

*
Dan Duyu Dan Duyu (但杜宇; 1897–1972), also romanized as Dan Do-yu, was a Chinese film director and cinematographer who directed more than 30 films from 1922 to 1952. He was married to film actress Yin Mingzhu (who starred in his 1927 film ''The Cave ...
(; 1897–1972), Chinese film director * Judy Dan (; born 1930), Chinese-born American actress * Yang Dan (neuroscientist) (), Chinese-born American neuroscientist


Japanese surnames Dan ()

* Fumi Dan (; born 1954), Japanese actress * Jirō Dan (), stage name of Hideo Murata (1949–2023), Japanese actor * Kazuo Dan (; 1912–1976), Japanese novelist and poet *
Mitsu Dan is the professional name of , a Japanese actress, gravure idol, and writer. She has played multiple lead roles in television and film, including Naoko in the 2013 erotic thriller ''Amai Muchi'', for which she received a Newcomer of the Year awa ...
(), stage name of Shizuka Saitō (born 1980), Japanese actress * Rei Dan (), stage name of Mayumi Yamazaki (born 1971), Japanese actress *
Tomoyuki Dan was a Japanese actor and Seiyū, voice actor from Osaka Prefecture. He was affiliated with Seinenza Theater Company at the time of his death. With his unique voice, Dan was best known for the voices of Kisame Hoshigaki in Naruto and Cronicle As ...
(; 1963–2013), Japanese actor and voice actor


Romanian

* Alexandru Dan (born 1994), Romanian football midfielder * Aurora Dan (born 1955), Romanian fencer * Cristian Florin Dan (born 1979), Romanian football playmaker * Călin Dan (born 1955), Romanian artist, theorist, and curator * Dan Petrescu (b. 1967), Romanian football manager and former player * Dan Petrescu (businessman) (1953–2021), Romanian businessman and billionaire *
Jo Jo Dan Jo Jo Dan (born Ionuț Dan Ion; 9 August 1981) is a Romanian professional boxer and world title challenger. He currently fights out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Professional boxing career Dan made his professional debut in 2004. On 30 November ...
(born 1981), Romanian boxer * Marin Dan (born 1948), Romanian handball player * Matei-Agathon Dan (1949–2023), Romanian economist and politician *
Nicușor Dan Nicușor Daniel Dan (; born 20 December 1969) is a Romanian politician, mathematician, and civic activist serving as the sixth president of Romania since 2025. He previously served as the mayor of Bucharest from 2020 to 2025 and as a member of ...
(born 1969), Romanian activist and mathematician, first liberal president *
Pavel Dan Pavel Dan (September 3, 1907 – August 2, 1937) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian prose writer. He was born in Tritenii de Jos, Clapa, Cluj County, in the Transylvania region. His parents, Simion Dan and Maria (''née'' Te ...
(1907–1937), Romanian short story writer *
Sergiu Dan Sergiu Dan (; born Isidor Rotman or Rottman; December 29, 1903 – March 13, 1976) was a Romanian novelist, journalist, Holocaust survivor and political prisoner of the communist regime. Dan, the friend and collaborator of Romulus Dianu, was n ...
(1903–1976), Romanian novelist


Other

* Aubrey Dan (born 1963), Canadian businesswoman * Bill Dan, Indonesian-born American sculptor and performance artist * Fyodor Dan (1871–1947), Russian Marxist revolutionary * Joseph Dan (1935–2020), Hungarian-born Israeli scholar of Jewish mysticism *
Leo Dan Leopoldo Dante Tévez (known as Leo Dan; March 22, 1942 – January 1, 2025) was an Argentine composer and singer. He recorded more than 20 albums during his long career during the late 20th century between Argentina and Mexico. Life and care ...
(1942–2025), Argentine composer and singer * Leslie Dan (born 1929), Hungarian-born Canadian businessman * Liran Dan (), Israeli government official and media executive *
Seaman Dan Henry Gibson Dan (25 August 1929 – 30 December 2020), known as Seaman Dan, was a Torres Strait Islander singer-songwriter with a national and international reputation. His first recording, an album called ''Follow the Sun'', was released in 2 ...
(Henry Gibson Dan, 1929–2020), Australia-Torres Straits Islander singer * Theo Dan (born 2000), English rugby union player


See also

* Daniel (disambiguation) * Danny (disambiguation)


References

{{Surname English-language surnames Hebrew-language surnames Romanian-language surnames Romanian masculine given names Chinese-language surnames Multiple Chinese surnames Japanese-language surnames Korean-language surnames English masculine given names Masculine given names English unisex given names