Yifan
A Chinese name almost never met in Poland: around 40 people carry it, split nearly evenly between women and men. It reads as "one sail", and no newborn has been given it in the years on record.
Yifan Pronunciation
Yifan is pronounced ih-EE-fahn (/ɨˈifan/).
What Yifan means
Where Yifan comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Yifan is a Chinese given name, usually written 一帆. It means one sail. The two characters stand for "one" and "sail," and the origin sits outside the Slavic and Greek roots that fill most Polish name books, which is why the record marks it "other."
The sense of good fortune attached to the name comes from an old phrase, 一帆风顺 (yīfān fēngshùn), a wish that your single sail catch a fair wind the whole way. Chinese speakers say it to travelers and to students before exams. A child called Yifan holds a small blessing for smooth passage, drawn straight from that saying.
The name works for boys and girls, and Polish records list no diminutive or variant for it. On a class register in Kraków it would stand on its own, four letters, no local nickname to soften it. The meaning stays close to the surface: one sail, ready for wind.
How many people are named Yifan
1 in 970281 men in Poland is named Yifan. 41 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #6086 among male names.