Kwan
Masculine · “Chinese Guan”
Kwan is given to both — 537 boys and 27 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Guan Yu was a general who became a god. He died in 220, was deified over the following centuries, and is now worshipped by police stations and criminal societies alike, both invoking the same virtue: loyalty to sworn brothers.
How old is the name Kwan?
Kwan first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Kwan alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 500 people named Kwan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kwan most popular?
Kwan peaked in 1975, reaching #2134 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 7,580 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Guan to Kwan
The story of Kwan
Guan Yu served the warlord Liu Bei in the collapse of the Han dynasty and was killed in 220. The historical record is modest; what happened afterwards is not. He was given posthumous titles by successive dynasties, promoted to a god by imperial decree, and by the Ming period was one of the most widely worshipped figures in China, with temples everywhere and a permanent place in Chinese Buddhism and Daoism alike. The fourteenth-century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms fixed his image: red-faced, long-bearded, carrying a halberd, and above all loyal. The result is that his shrine appears in Hong Kong police stations and in triad ceremonies, both invoking the oath of brotherhood he is said to have sworn in a peach garden. Very few historical soldiers have become gods, and none has managed to be claimed by both sides of the law.
Meaningscholars disagree
Chinese Guan, a surname and a pass
Kwan is the Cantonese romanisation of the Chinese surname written Guan in Mandarin, whose character also means a gate, a mountain pass or to close. In American records the spelling also serves as a given name in Korean and as a short form of other names. The American peak is 1975.
How the name formed
- Guan
- Kwan
Related forms: Guan · Gwan
Pronouncing Kwan
KWAHN
One syllable. Cantonese is tonal and the tone is not written in English. Mandarin Guan is said with a similar vowel and a different initial.
Nicknames for Kwan
Limited
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
- 1969
- Most boys named
- 197521 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2134reached in 1975
- Change vs 2022
- +40.0%7 in 2025, from 5
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.
Kwan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Guan in Mandarin — same name
- Gwan in Korean — related form
Kwans among us
people named Kwan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Kwan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kwan
- #9714
- Kwan on the 2025 chart
- #909
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kwan went to 7 boys in 2025, but Quan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 909th most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,805 places above the chart.
- Quan12
- Kwan7
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 244,011 for Kwan itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Frederik test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kwan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Frederik climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Frederik's path sketches the road Kwan is walking now.
Kwan 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
Kwan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kwan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and one syllable, as compact as a name gets.
- It is a genuine Chinese surname with a long history.
- There is no possible mispronunciation in English.
- It is a surname rather than a given name in Chinese.
- The tone, which matters in Cantonese, is lost in English.
- Guan is the standard Mandarin romanisation.
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What they receive
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Kwan
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kwans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Kwan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kwan?
- Kwan is one of 2 recorded spellings. Quan is the more common one — 12 births in 2025 against 7 for Kwan.
- How popular is the name Kwan in 2025?
- Kwan ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kwan?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Kwan — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kwan with classmates?
- Kwan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kwan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Rob#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kwan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kwan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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