Evan is both an English and Welsh male given name derived from "Iefan", a Welsh form for the name John. In other languages it could be compared to "

Ivan Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulga ...

", " Ian", and "

Juan ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of '' John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish ...

"; the name John itself is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Yəhôḥānān, which means "

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately fr ...

is gracious". Evan is also the shortened version of the Greek names "

Evangelos Evangelos, Vangelis ( el, Ευάγγελος, or, in polytonic orthography, ; from "good" + "messenger, angel") is a common Greek male name. The diminutive derived from the name Evangelos, is usually Vangelis. The female equivalent is Evangelía ...

" (meaning "good messenger") and " Evander" (meaning "good man"). The name is also sparingly given to women, as with actress

Evan Rachel Wood Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress and activist. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in ...

. It may be encountered as a surname, of which Evans is the most common version. Other languages also assign meaning to Evan as a word or name. It is related to the Gaelic word "Eóghan" meaning "youth" or "young warrior", and means "right-handed" in Scots. he, אֶבֶן, even literally means "rock". The old English translation of the name "Evan" could also be interpreted as "Heir of the Earth" or "The King".

Popularity

The popularity of the name Evan for males in the United States had risen steadily in recent decades, going from the 440th-ranked male name in 1957 to peaking at the 35th-ranked male name in 2009. It has since declined, dropping out of the top 50 male names in the US by 2013 and out of the top 100 by 2020. It was never a popular name for girls, though its popularity as a girl's name increased slightly in the 1980s and '90s; it has also declined since then, just as it has among boys.

People

Given name

* Evan Shelby Alexander, American politician *

Evan Battey Evan Earl Battey (born September 27, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for Rilski Sportist of the National Basketball League (NBL). He played college basketball for the Colorado Buffaloes. He was named second-team All-Pac-12 as ...

(born 1998), American basketball player *

Evan Bayh Birch Evans Bayh III ( ; born December 26, 1955) is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011 and the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997. Bayh w ...

, American politician *

Evan Baylis Evan Luke Baylis (born November 18, 1993) is an American football tight end who is a free agent. He played college football at Oregon and was originally signed by the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent in 2017. He has also been a member of ...

, American football player *

Evan Bernstein ''For the American public figure and community leader, see Evan R. Bernstein.'' Evan Bernstein (אבן ברנשטיין; born April 16, 1960) is an Israeli-American former Olympic wrestler for Israel. Personal life Bernstein was born in the Un ...

, Israeli Olympic wrestler * Evan Berry, All-American football player *

Evan Brown (American football) Evan Brown (born September 16, 1996) is an American football center for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at SMU. Professional career New York Giants Brown signed with the New York Giants as ...

, American football player * Evan Call, American composer * Evan Chambers, American musician * Evan Chandler, American screenwriter and dentist, known for accusing

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

of molesting his son * Evan Conti (born 1993), American-Israeli basketball player and coach * Evan Cooper, American football player *

Evan Dando Evan Griffith Dando (born March 4, 1967) is an American musician and frontman of the Lemonheads. He has also embarked on a solo career and collaborated on songs with various artists. In December 2015 Dando was inducted into the Boston Music Awards ...

, American musician *

Evan Dara Evan Dara is an American novelist. He has published four novels and one play, which are concerned with subjects including social atomization, music, political dysfunction, epistemology, ecology, and time. The Times Literary Supplement (Lond ...

, American novelist * Evan Davis (journalist), British economist and journalist *

Evan Dobelle Evan Samuel Dobelle (born April 22, 1945) is a former public official and higher-education administrator, is known for promoting higher-education investment in the Creative Economy, public-private partnerships and the "College Ready" model tha ...

, American educator * Evan Dunham, American mixed martial artist * Evan Edinger, American

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

Evan Engram Evan Michael Engram (born September 2, 1994) is an American football tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ole Miss and was drafted by the New York Giants with the 23rd pick ...

, American football player *

Evan Eschmeyer Evan Bruce Eschmeyer (born May 30, 1975) is an American retired professional basketball player who was selected by the New Jersey Nets in the second round (34th pick overall) of the 1999 NBA Draft. He spent six years on the Northwestern Unive ...

, former American professional basketball player * Evan Evagora, Australian actor *

Evan Evans (film composer) Evan Edward Evans (born September 13, 1975 in Bergen County, New Jersey) is an American film score composer."Evan Evans" (2011) ''Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television'', Vol. 112, Detroit: Gale, Biography in Context He is the son of jazz p ...

, American film score composer *

Evan Forde Evan B. Forde is an American oceanographer at the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He was the first African-American scientist to perform research in a submer ...

, American oceanographer * Evan Fong, Youtuber * Evan Fournier, French basketball player *

Evan G. Galbraith Evan "Van" Griffith Galbraith (July 2, 1928 – January 21, 2008) was the United States Ambassador to France from 1981 to 1985 under Ronald Reagan and the Secretary of Defense Representative to Europe and NATO under Donald Rumsfeld from 2002 to 2 ...

, former United States Ambassador to France * Evan Gattis,

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

player *

Evan Glodell Evan Glodell is an American feature film director, producer, writer, and actor, best known for directing the indie microbudget film '' Bellflower.'' Early life Glodell was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and briefly attended the University of Wisc ...

, American feature film director, producer, writer, and actor * Evan Goldberg, Canadian screenwriter, film producer and director * Evan Gray, former New Zealand cricketer * Evan Handler, American novelist and actor *

Evan Harris Evan Leslie Harris (born 21 October 1965) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford West and Abingdon from 1997 to 2010, losing his seat in the 2010 general election by 176 votes to Conservative ...

, British politician * Evan Howell, American politician and soldier * Evan Jenkins, American politician * Evan Kaufmann, German-American ice hockey player * Evan Kim, American actor *

Evan King Evan King (born March 25, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. King has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No. 185, achieved in April 2018. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of No. 113, achieved in February 202 ...

, American tennis player * Evan Leong, American film director * Evan Longoria, American professional baseball player *

Evan Lysacek Evan Frank Lysacek (; born June 4, 1985) is an American retired figure skater. He is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion, a two-time (2005, 2007) Four Continents champion, the 2009 Grand Prix Final champion, and a two-time (2007 ...

, American figure skater *

Evan McPherson Evan McPherson (born July 21, 1999) is an American football placekicker for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Florida before being drafted by the Bengals in the fifth round of the 2021 ...

(born 1999), American football player * Evan McKie, Canadian ballet dancer * Evan Meek, American baseball player *

Evan Narcisse Evan Narcisse is an American comic book writer, journalist, and video game narrative designer. Narcisse began his working career as a journalist who has reported on video games for several media outlets, such as ''The Atlantic'', ''The New York T ...

, American writer *

Evan Neal Evan Neal (born September 19, 2000) is an American football offensive tackle for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Alabama and was selected seventh overall by the Giants in the 2022 NFL Dr ...

(born 2000), American football player * Evan Peters, American actor *

Evan Price Evan David Lewis Price is a barrister at Ten Old Square chambers, Lincoln's Inn in London and a Conservative politician. Background Born and raised in Wales, Price attended Sandhurst and joined the Royal Regiment of Wales The Royal Regimen ...

, Welsh politician *

Evan Pugh Evan Pugh (February 29, 1828 – April 29, 1864) was the first president of the Pennsylvania State University, serving from 1859 until his death in 1864. An agricultural chemist, he was responsible for securing Penn State's designation in 1863 as ...

, American academic administrator *

Evan Roberts (minister) Evan John Roberts (8 June 1878 – 29 January 1951) was a Welsh evangelist and leading figure of the 1904–1905 Welsh revival. His obituary in '' The Western Mail'' summed up his career thus: :"He was a man who had experienced strange thi ...

, Welsh revivalist * Evan Roberts (sportscaster), American radio personality *

Evan Roderick Evan Roderick Anderson (born 29 June 1995) is a Canadian actor and former ice hockey player. Life and career Roderick was born and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. He has an older brother, Stuart. Evan first became interested in per ...

, Canadian actor * Evan Rodriguez, American football player * Evan Royster, American professional football player * Evan Seinfeld, American pornographic actor * Evan Spiegel, American founder of

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before th ...

Evan Stewart Evan Stewart may refer to: * Evan Stewart (diver) Evan Stewart (born June 11, 1975) is a former Olympic Games, Olympic diving (sport), diver for Zimbabwe. He competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1992 ...

, Zimbabwean Olympic diver * Evan Tanner, American mixed martial artist *

Evan Lorimer Thomas Evan Lorimer Thomas (21 February 1872 – 9 April 1953) was a Welsh clergyman and Professor of Welsh at St David's College, Lampeter (which later became the University of Wales, Lampeter) from 1903 to 1915. Life Thomas was the son of the a ...

, Welsh clergyman * Evan Thomas, American journalist and author * Evan Turner, American professional basketball player *

Evan Watkins Evan William Watkins (third ¼ 1882 – 9 January 1956) was a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1900s, and cricketer who played in the 1900s and 1910s. He played representative level rugby union (RU) ...

, Welsh rugby footballer * Evan Weaver, American football player * Evan Weinstock, American Olympic bobsledder *

Evan Williams Evan Williams may refer to: __NOTOC__ People In sport * Evan O. Williams (c. 1889–1946), American football and basketball coach * Evan Williams (footballer) (born 1943), Scottish football goalkeeper * Evan Williams (jockey) (1912–2001), horse ...

, American singer *

, American Internet entrepreneur, former CEO of

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

* Evan James Williams, Welsh experimental physicist *

, American actress * Evan Wright, American writer * Evan Wallace, American Rapper *

Evan Yo Tsai Min-you (born 12 November 1986), better known as Evan Yo, is a Taiwanese Mandopop Mandopop or Mandapop refers to Mandarin popular music. The genre has its origin in the jazz-influenced popular music of 1930s Shanghai known as Shidaiqu; ...

, Taiwanese pop singer

Fictional characters

*Evan Barnett, businessman in the film ''

Little Rascals ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the ...

'' *Evan "Buck" Buckley, a character in the TV series ''

9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency n ...

'' *Evan Webber, main character in the 2005 film '' Knock Knock *Evan Baxter, in the 2007 film '' Evan Almighty'' *Evan Chambers, in the 2007 TV series ''

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

'' *Evan Delaney, female writer and legal assistant in five novels by Meg Gardiner *Evan Drake, a character in the TV sitcom ''

Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...

'' *Evan Hansen, the title character in the Broadway musical ''

Dear Evan Hansen ''Dear Evan Hansen'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety, "who invents an important role for himself in a ...

'' and its 2021 film adaptation. *Evan Hawkins, Paramedic Field Chief on '' Chicago Fire'' *Evan Lewis, a character from ''

Final Destination 2 ''Final Destination 2'' is a 2003 American supernatural horror film directed by David R. Ellis. The screenplay was written by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress, based on a story by Gruber, Bress, and series creator Jeffrey Reddick. It is the seq ...

'' *Evan Michael Tanner, government agent with permanent insomnia in eight novels by

Lawrence Block Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Mas ...

*Evan Treborn, in the 2004 film '' The Butterfly Effect'' *Evan Rosier, deceased Death Eater in the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students a ...

'' series

Surname

*Rev.

Cadwallader William Evan Cadwallader William Evan ( – 21 August 1876), generally referred to as Rev. C. W. Evan, was a Congregationalist minister in colonial South Australia, the first to serve at the Pilgrim Uniting Church, Stow Memorial Church, Flinders Street, Adela ...

(?–1876), first minister of Stow Church, Adelaide, South Australia ** Mostyn Evan (1861–1924), Cadwallader William Evan's son. A South Australian lawyer and sports administrator

Popular culture references to the name Evan

*'' Evan Almighty'', a 2007 film and standalone sequel to the 2003 film ''

Bruce Almighty ''Bruce Almighty'' is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to G ...

''. *''

'', an award-winning 2016 Broadway musical and its film adaptation.

References

{{reflist English given names Welsh masculine given names English-language unisex given names English masculine given names English feminine given names