Xoan
From the Greek for "god is gracious". So rare in Poland it barely registers: the handful of people who carry it split evenly between women and men, a name that leans neither way.
Xoan Pronunciation
What Xoan means
Where Xoan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Xoan is the Galician name for John, carried in Spain's green northwest where the Atlantic meets the hills. Behind it stands the Greek Ioannes, and further back a phrase the tradition preserved: god is gracious. Galician pared the longer forms down, and two syllables were left.
In Galicia the feast of San Xoán falls on 24 June. Coastal towns light bonfires on the sand for John the Baptist, and the night keeps the name public and loud. A Polish child named Xoan would meet none of that. He meets instead a teacher reading the class register, pausing on the x before the vowel.
The meaning has not moved. God is gracious, the same sense the Greek Ioannes once held. A boy called Xoan carries John in a Galician coat.
How many people are named Xoan
1 in 7514611 women in Poland is named Xoan. 6 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #24558 among female names.