Fan
Given to both men and women in Poland: 34 men and 14 carry it. That's a pet form of Frances or Francis, and with fewer than fifty bearers in all, most Poles have never met one.
Fan Pronunciation
Fan is pronounced FAHN (/fan/).
What Fan means
Where Fan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Fan is a diminutive of Frances, and Frances descends from the Latin Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman" or "free". Saint Francis of Assisi carried the name across Europe, and once Frances took root in English, it sprouted fond short forms. Fanny was the best known. Fan was the trimmed version, one syllable and done.
A second Fan exists by pure coincidence of spelling. In Chinese it serves as a common surname and given name, with no link to the Latin root. On a Polish class register the two could sit in the same column and mean nothing to each other.
The nobility that later readers heard in Franciscus was read into it afterward, back when it plainly marked a man from France. Fan keeps none of that alone. It points back to Frances, and through Frances to one short meaning: a diminutive of Frances.
How many people are named Fan
1 in 627829 men in Poland is named Fan. 48 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #5474 among male names.