"IAN" redirects here. For the airport in Alaska with IATA code IAN, see Bob Baker Memorial Airport.
| Ian | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Meaning | God is Gracious |
| Origin | Hebrew (via Scottish Gaelic) |
| Related names | John |
| Wikipedia articles | All pages beginning with "Ian " |
 |
Look up Ian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
"Ian", "Iain", or "Eian" (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈɪʲən], English: /ˈiː.ən/) is the Scottish Gaelic version of the name John. It is a very common name in much of the English-speaking world. In the United Kingdom, Ian was the 19th most common male name, taking account of the whole population (over 300,000 Ians in total).[citation needed] The name has now fallen out of the top 100 male baby names in the UK, while remaining roughly constant in popularity in the USA.
| Popularity of the name 'Ian' in the USA. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Rank | ||||
| 2007 | 74 | ||||
| 2006 | 81 | ||||
| 2005 | 68 | ||||
| 2004 | 69 | ||||
| 2003 | 65 | ||||
| 2002 | 67 | ||||
| 2001 | 70 | ||||
| 2000 | 73 | ||||
| 1999 | 72 | ||||
| 1998 | 73 | ||||
| 1997 | 60 | ||||
| Note: Rank 1 is the most popular, rank 2 is the next most popular, and so forth. |
|||||
Other Gaelic forms of "John" include "Seonaidh" ("Johnny" from Lowland Scots), "Seon" (from English), "Seathan", and "Seán" and "Eoin" (from Irish). In Greek 'Yanis' or 'Ianis' or 'Ioannis' is a particularly common name. Its Welsh counterpart is Ioan.
Many Armenian surnames end in -ian (such as Kardashian), as "ian" (or "yan") means "son of" in Armenian.
Contents |
Notable Ians
As a first name (alphabetical by family name)
- Ian Anderson - lead of rock band Jethro Tull
- Ian Astbury - singer of rock band The Cult
- Ian Bairnson - guitarist of The Alan Parsons Project and Pilot
- Ian Baker-Finch - golfer and 1991 British Open winner
- Ian Bannen - British actor
- Ian Willoughby Bazalgette - recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Sir Ian Blair - former Head of the Metropolitan Police Service
- Sir Ian Botham - cricketer
- Ian Brady - Moors murderer
- Ian Bremmer - political scientist, author, entrepreneur
- Ian Broudie - singer in The Lightning Seeds, and music producer
- Ian Brown - singer/lyricist in The Stone Roses
- Ian Harold Brown - inventor of the bug sponge
- Ian Callum - Design director for Jaguar
- Ian Carmichael - OBE, actor
- Ian Cashmore - broadcaster/presenter and paranormal investigator
- Ian Chappell - cricketer
- Ian Charleson - Scottish/British actor
- Ian Clark - Professor of Earth Sciences
- Ian Clyde - boxer
- Ian Collier - singer and actor
- Ian Cooper - footballer
- Ian James Corlett - cartoon writer and voice actor
- Ian Crocker - swimmer
- Ian Curtis - singer and lyricist in Joy Division
- Ian Davis - writer
- Ian Dury - singer and songwriter
- Ian Eagle - American sports announcer
- Ian Ferguson (disambiguation)
- Ian Flanagan - tennis player
- Ian Fleming - Novelist, creator of James Bond
- Ian Frazier - writer and humorist
- Ian Gibson (disambiguation)
- Ian Gillan - lead singer of hard rock band Deep Purple
- Ian Gold - former American football player
- Ian Gomm - British guitarist and singer
- Ian Grist - British politician
- Ian Hart - actor
- Ian Hecox - From youtube's "Smosh"
- Ian Henderson (Britain) - former head of secret police in Bahrain, accused of torture
- Ian Henderson (ABC) - Australian news presenter
- Ian Henderson (football) - current Norwich City F.C. player in the FA Premier League
- Ian Henderson (rugby league) - Scottish rugby hooker who plays in Australia
- Ian Hicks - Chicago DJ and electronic musician
- Ian Hislop - Satirist and editor of Private Eye
- Ian Holm (born 1931) - British actor
- Ian Hornak - painter
- Ian Hunter - singer of Mott the Hoople
- Ian Huntley - double murderer
- Ian Jobling - race realist
- Ian Kennedy - Major League Baseball pitcher
- Ian Kershaw - historian
- Ian Kinsler - Major League Baseball second baseman for the Texas Rangers
- Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister - singer/bass player in Motörhead
- Ian Krankie - entertainer
- Ian Laperrière - hockey player
- Ian Lavender - actor
- Ian Oswald Liddell - recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Ian Livingstone - author
- Ian Lorimer - television director
- Ian Lucas - politician
- Ian MacArthur - politician
- Ian MacKaye - musician
- Ian Mahinmi - basketball player
- Ian Martin - human rights activist
- Ian Matthews - member of Fairport Convention and notable solo musician, has changed his name to Iain Matthews
- Ian Maxtone-Graham - television writer and producer
- Ian McCaskill - weather forecaster
- Ian McConville - webcomic artist of Mac Hall and Three Panel Soul
- Ian McCulloch - actor
- Ian McCulloch - singer in the band Echo & the Bunnymen
- Ian McCulloch - snooker player
- Ian McDiarmid - actor
- Ian McDonald - British musician, best known for being a member of both King Crimson and Foreigner
- Ian McEwan - novelist
- Ian John McKay - recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Sir Ian McKellen - actor
- Ian McMillan - poet
- Ian McMillan - Scottish footballer
- Ian McShane - actor
- Ian Messiter - creator of Just a Minute
- Ian Moran - hockey player
- Ian Morris - Irish professional footballer
- Ian Morrison - Australian journalist and war correspondent for The Times
- Ian Mosley - drummer for Marillion
- Ian Murdock - computer professional, creator of the Debian project
- Ian O'Brien - swimmer
- Ian Paice - drummer of Deep Purple
- Ian Paisley - Protestant politician
- Ian Pooley - German DJ
- Ian Rankin - Scottish novelist
- Ian Reed - Australian discus thrower
- Ian Reid (disambiguation)
- Ian Richards - British race walker
- Ian Richardson - Scottish actor
- Ian Rush - Welsh international footballer
- Ian Smith (disambiguation)
- Ian Smith - ex Rhodesian Prime Minister
- Ian Snell - Major League Baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates
- Ian Somerhalder - actor
- Ian Stanley - British musician
- Ian Stewart (disambiguation)
- Ian Stone - comedian
- Ian Stuart Donaldson - vocalist and frontman of controversial British band Skrewdriver
- Ian Svenonius - American musician
- Ian Thornley - Canadian musician
- Ian Thorpe - Australian swimmer
- Ian Thomson - cricketer
- Ian Van Dahl - Belgian artist
- Ian Waltz - American discus thrower
- Ian Watkins (born 1977), lead singer of the alternative metal band Lostprophets
- Ian Watkins (born 1976), British pop singer and actor, former member of Steps
- Ian Weatherhead - English watercolor artist
- Ian Wilmut - English embryologist, best known for cloning Dolly the sheep
- Ian Wilson (disambiguation)
- Ian Woosnam - Welsh golfer
- Ian Wright - footballer
- Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa - Birth name of musician Dweezil Zappa
- Ian Ziering - actor
As a middle name
- Michael Ian Black - (often credited by his full name), American comedian
- Thomas Ian Nicholas - actor
As a family name
- Janis Ian - singer and songwriter
- Scott Ian - stage name of Scott Ian Rosenfeld, guitarist with the metal band Anthrax
Notable Iains
- Iain Archer - Northern Irish Singer-songwriter musician
- Iain Balshaw - MBE, English rugby player
- Iain Banks - Scottish writer
- Iain Black - British Columbia politician
- Iain Dowie - Northern Irish football manager
- Iain Durrant - Scottish footballer
- Iain Evans - South African field hockey player
- Iain Gray - Leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament
- Iain Harnden - Zimbabwean hurdler
- Iain Lee - British comedian, TV presenter and radio presenter
- Iain Macleod - British politician
- Iain Macmillan - Scottish photographer, noted for his image of the Beatles walking across Abbey Road
- Iain Paxton - Scottish rugby player
- Iain Smith - Scottish politician
- Iain Duncan Smith - Leader of the Conservative Party, 2001-2003
- Iain Softley - film director
- Iain Stirling - TV presenter and comedian
- Iain Stewart - Scottish geologist and presenter
- Iain Sydie - Canadian badminton player
- The Very Revd Iain Torrance - President of Princeton Theological Seminary and former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
Fictional Ians
- Ian Beale - from the TV soap opera EastEnders
- Ian Chesterton - from the TV series Doctor Who
- Ian Craig - from the radio soap opera The Archers
- Ian Edgerton - FBI agent and sniper from the show Numb3rs
- Ian Gallagher - one of the main characters in the television drama, Shameless
- Ian Howe - an antagonist in National Treasure
- Ian Kabra - antagonist of The 39 Clues book series
- Ian Kelley - from the TV series Being Ian
- Ian Lewis and Ian Ketterman (together with dozens of other Ians) - characters created by Lee and Herring; the duo used 'Ian' as their de facto comedy name, in such sketches as the Ian News
- Ian - from Leprechaun 2
- Ian Malcolm - from Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park
- Ian (MÄR) - a recurring character in the manga and anime series MÄR
- Ian Maxtone-Graham - from the TV series Suddenly Susan
- Professor Ian McClaine - adoptive father of Joe 90
- Ian McKenzie - the liberal attorney from the novel and the film A Dry White Season
- Ian McKinley - from the movie Final Destination 3
- Ian Miller - from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- Ian Murray- The Nephew of Jamie Fraser in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels
- Ian O'Shea - from Stephenie Meyer's novel, The Host
- Ian Randall - from the 'Dichotic' episode of Smallville, a character who had the ability to duplicate himself
- Ian Raymond - Laura's boyfriend in the novel and film, High Fidelity
- Ian Schulenburg - Unseen husband of Harriet Schulenburg in Green Wing
- Ian Rider - From the Alex Rider books
- Ian Scuffling - Tyrone Slothrup's adopted name after he goes into hiding in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow
- Ian - from Shane Jiraiya Cummings' short story, "Ian". Every male character who the protagonist meets is called Ian
- Ian - from Sarah Kane's play, Blasted
- Ian Hawke - from 2007 film Alvin and the Chipmunks
See also
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
