Iwan
A Slavic name that carries the sense "god is gracious". It stays rare: fewer than 800 men in Poland answer to it, and last year it went to just four newborn boys.
Iwan Pronunciation
Iwan is pronounced EE-vahn (/ˈivan/).
What Iwan means
Where Iwan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Iwan is the Slavic form of a name that traveled far before it reached Russian. In Polish it reads as the eastern cousin of Jan, and its Russian association runs deep. Think of Iwan Groźny, Ivan the Terrible, the first Muscovite ruler crowned tsar in 1547. The name he carried means "god is gracious", a sense that belongs to the older Hebrew layer beneath the Slavic surface.
That grace is the claim the name makes. It names a hope older than any single bearer rather than describing the person who wears it.
On a Polish class register, Iwan sits a little apart, marking a family with an eye toward the east. The meaning holds. The spelling shifts across borders. Bóg jest łaskaw, god is gracious: that is what Iwan says.
How many people are named Iwan
1 in 27332 men in Poland is named Iwan. 781 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1058 among male names.
Iwan's popularity over time
4 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1061 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2004. Still the #1058 name among living men, even as it slips to #1061 among newborns.
Where Iwan is most popular
Iwan is most popular in Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 182% above the national average (9 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Łódź (+117%) and Greater Poland (+43%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Lesser Poland, 43% and 40% below average respectively.
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian9 boys born+182%
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Łódź8 boys born+117%
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Greater Poland9 boys born+43%
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Pomeranian6 boys born+40%
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West Pomeranian3 boys born+22%
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Lower Silesian5 boys born+9%
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Masovian10 boys born−3%
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Silesian5 boys born−25%
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Lublin2 boys born−33%
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Lesser Poland4 boys born−40%
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Subcarpathian2 boys born−43%
Iwan as a middle name
Iwan is a first name for 781 men in Poland and a middle name for another 150, an 84/16 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 572nd, between Haim (150) and Arturo (149).
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#570 Dyonizy150
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#571 Haim150
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#572 Iwan150
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#573 Arturo149
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#574 Douglas149