Bijan
Masculine · “Persian”
Bijan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 998 boys against 29 girls since 1880.
In the Shahnameh, Bijan crosses into Turan, the enemy country, falls in love with the enemy king's daughter Manijeh, and is thrown into a pit. She feeds him through a crack in the rock until Rostam comes to lift the stone. It is the great love story of Persian epic.
How old is the name Bijan?
Bijan first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Bijan alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 1,000 people named Bijan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bijan most popular?
Bijan peaked in 1991, reaching #1411 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,499 places below that high. See the whole 1991 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Bijan
The Bijan and Manijeh episode is one of the longest self-contained stories in the Shahnameh and Ferdowsi introduces it as told to him by a woman, which is unusual and much discussed. Bijan, a young Iranian warrior, goes into Turan on a hunting expedition, meets Manijeh, daughter of the Turanian king Afrasiyab, and is discovered; the king has him thrown into a pit sealed with a great stone. Manijeh, disowned and reduced to begging, keeps him alive by passing food through a gap. Rostam, the epic's central hero, comes disguised as a merchant, finds them, and lifts the stone. The story matters in the poem because it crosses the frontier the whole epic is about, and it resolves with the enemy king's daughter choosing the other side.
Meaningscholars disagree
Persian, of disputed meaning
Bijan is the name of a hero in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, completed around 1010. Its meaning is not established; proposals include hero and a connection to an older Iranian word, none demonstrated. The zh sound in the middle is written j in the usual transliteration and has no single English spelling. The American peak is 1991.
Pronouncing Bijan
bee-ZHAHN
Two syllables, stress on the second. The j is the zh of measure, not the j of judge, which is why Bizhan is the more accurate transliteration.
Nicknames for Bijan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1968
- Most boys named
- 199165 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1411reached in 1991
- Change vs 2024
- −20.0%8 in 2025, from 10
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Bijan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bizhan in Persian — transliteration
- Bejan in English — spelling variant
Bijans among us
people named Bijan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Bijan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tarus test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bijan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tarus climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tarus's path sketches the road Bijan is walking now.
Bijan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Bijan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bijan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters and two syllables, easy to write.
- It carries one of the best-known stories in Persian literature.
- The stressed ending gives it a firm final beat.
- The j is said as zh, which English spelling does not show.
- Bizhan is the more accurate transliteration.
- The meaning is genuinely disputed.
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Bijan
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bijans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Bijan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bijan in 2025?
- Bijan ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bijan?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Bijan — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bijan with classmates?
- Bijan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bijan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bijan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bijan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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