Nevan
Masculine · “little holy one”
Nevan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,184 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Nevan is Irish and means holy — Naomhan is a diminutive of naomh, the ordinary Irish word for a saint. It belonged to a seventh-century Irish saint and is one of a small group of Irish names that describe sanctity directly rather than through a person. Its American peak is 2004.
How old is the name Nevan?
Nevan first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Nevan alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 1,200 people named Nevan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nevan most popular?
Nevan peaked in 2004, reaching #1701 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 4,442 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Where it comes from
From naomh to Nevan
The story of Nevan
Saint Naomhan was an Irish holy man of the seventh century, one of many about whom little survives beyond a name and a feast day. The name stayed rare in Ireland and rarer in English-speaking countries until the general revival of Irish names in the late twentieth century. That revival brought Aidan, Liam, Declan, Ronan, Cian and Nevan into English-language use, mostly since 1990, and gave several of them careers in America larger than any they had ever had in Ireland. Nevan's American record is small and its peak is recent.
Meaning
little holy one; saint
Irish naomh means holy or a saint, and it is the ordinary modern word — Naomh Padraig is Saint Patrick. Naomhan adds the diminutive ending -an, so the name means something like 'little holy one'. The anglicized spellings are Nevan and Nevin. The derivation is settled. It is unrelated to the English Nevin from the Scottish surname MacNiven, which comes from a different root.
How the name formed
- naomh
- Naomhan
- Nevan
Related forms: Naomhan · Nevin
Pronouncing Nevan
NEV-un
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ending reduced to a schwa. The Irish Naomhan is closer to NEEV-awn, since the mh is said as a v and the first vowel is long. The anglicized version is standard in America.
Nicknames for Nevan
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
- 1986
- Most boys named
- 200475 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1701reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- −17.6%14 in 2025, from 17
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.
Nevan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Naomhan in Irish — related form
- Nevin in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Nevans among us
people named Nevan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Nevan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nevan
- #6143
- Nevan on the 2025 chart
- #908
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nevan went to 14 boys in 2025, but Neevan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 908th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,235 places above the chart.
- Nevan14
- Neevan6
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Nevan 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 Izell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nevan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Izell climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Izell's path sketches the road Nevan is walking now.
Nevan 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
Nevan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nevan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and expressible in two words.
- Nev and Van are both usable short forms with different characters.
- The pronunciation is obvious from the anglicized spelling.
- Nevan and Nevin are separate names of separate origins that look identical.
- The Irish original is said quite differently from the English spelling.
- It is easily heard as Devin, Kevin or Evan.
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What they receive
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Nevan
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nevans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Nevan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nevan?
- Nevan is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Neevan.
- How popular is the name Nevan in 2025?
- Nevan ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nevan?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Nevan — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nevan with classmates?
- Nevan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nevan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nevan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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