Bohdan
Masculine · “given by God”
Bohdan is the Ukrainian form of a Slavic compound that reads as a complete sentence: given by God. It is one of the very few native Slavic names that survived Christianisation.
How old is the name Bohdan?
Bohdan first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Bohdan alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 800 people named Bohdan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bohdan most popular?
Bohdan peaked in 1952, reaching #1245 nationally. Today it ranks #3658, 2,413 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Bogdan to Bohdan
The story of Bohdan
When the Slavic peoples became Christian they largely adopted Greek and Hebrew names, and only a handful of native compounds survived — Bohdan is the clearest. Ukrainian spells it with an h where Russian and Polish have a g, which is one of the regular sound differences between them. Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the seventeenth-century hetman, made the name a national one in Ukraine.
Meaning
given by God
From Slavic bog, God, and dan, given; the same idea is expressed by the Greek Theodore and the Hebrew Nathaniel, so three unrelated languages have built the same name three times.
How the name formed
- Bogdan
- Bohdan
Related forms: Bogdan · Богдан · Theodore
Pronouncing Bohdan
boh-DAHN
Two syllables with the stress on the second in Ukrainian. English speakers often say BOH-dan.
Nicknames for Bohdan
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 201732 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1245reached in 1952
- Change vs 2024
- +30.4%30 in 2025, from 23
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.
Bohdan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bogdan in Polish — same name
- Богдан in Russian — transliteration
- Theodore in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Colorado.
Bohdans among us
people named Bohdan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was named Bohdan
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 Kenley test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bohdan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenley climbed just as high around 1935, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenley's path sketches the road Bohdan is walking now.
Bohdan 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
Where Bohdan is headed
Bohdan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Bohdan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bohdan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that forms a complete sentence in plain Slavic words.
- Dan is available immediately as an entirely ordinary short form.
- Very widely used in Ukraine, so it has a large community behind it.
- Bogdan is the Polish and Russian spelling and will be offered as a correction.
- The stress moves to the front in English mouths.
- The h where other Slavic languages have a g is a Ukrainian marker that will be misread.
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What they receive
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Bohdan
Masculine · #3658 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bohdans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Bohdan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bohdan in 2025?
- Bohdan ranks #3658 among US boy names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bohdan?
- About 1 in every 56,936 US boys born in 2025 was named Bohdan — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bohdan with classmates?
- Bohdan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bohdan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jimmie#3658 · Mckinley#3658 · Menno#3658 · Claudio#3658 · Ezekial#3658 · Brandt#3658 · Benuel#3658 · Gustav#3658
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bohdan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bohdan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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