Hans

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Han in MY Malaysia, CN China, KP North Korea and 한 in KR South Korea, FR France.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Hans is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name162K records spelled Hans26 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Peru, Chile, United States

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Han'S, Háns, Hanś, Hàns, H̶a̶n̶s̶

• Hindi given name68K records spelled Hans3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Switzerland, Netherlands

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

• a separate given name53K records spelled Hans3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Switzerland, Netherlands

  Also written Hāns

• French given name38K records spelled Hans5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Netherlands, United States, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Hàns, Håns

• Finnish given name34K records spelled Hans5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, United States

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Hãñs, Häns, Hãns

• Indonesian given name15K records spelled Hans9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Netherlands, India, United States

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Han'S, 'Hans, Hans', Hân'S, Hận'S

• Polish given name10K records spelled Hans5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Czechia, Netherlands, Slovakia

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

• a separate given name6.7K records spelled Hans12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, United States, Sweden, Netherlands

  Also written Hãns, Hân'S, Håns, Han'S, Hạn'S

86 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Hans is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, from Hans, a short form of Johann < Hebrew Yôḥānān 'Yahweh is gracious'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In French, German diminutive of Johannes, 'God is gracious'.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In German, Used as a comparison for patronymic suffixes -mann, -ing and -er. Morphological pattern: base name for suffix comparison.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen

• Hindu (Arora) and Sikh name, from Sanskrit hamsa ‘swan’, ‘goose’, based on the name of an Arora clan.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• from a common and long-established vernacular personal name, an aphetic form of Johannes (see John). The surname is also borne by Ashkenazic Jews, presumably as an adoption of the German or Dutch surname.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Hans Memlingb. 1435DEGerman/Flemish painter (c. 1430–1494)
• Hans Holbeinb. 1497DEGerman artist and printmaker (1497–1543)
• Hans Christian Oerstedb. 1777DKDanish physicist and chemist (1777-1851)
• Paul von Hindenburgb. 1847DEnot in their usual namePrussian-German field marshal of the German Empire, statesman and president of Weimar Germany and Nazi Germany (1847–1934)
• Emil Noldeb. 1867DEnot in their usual nameGerman artist (1867–1956)
• Hans Albert Einsteinb. 1904CHSwiss-American engineer and educator (1904-1973)
• Hans Betheb. 1906USGerman-American nuclear physicist
• Hans Schäferb. 1927DEGerman footballer (1927-2017)
• Hans Blixb. 1928SESwedish politician (born 1928)
• Pete Docterb. 1968USnot in their usual nameAmerican animator and film director

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,070 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Hans?

We estimate roughly 812 thousand people bear Hans (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Hans have the most bearers?

We estimate about 774 thousand people bear Hans in South Korea, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled 한.

How common is Hans compared with other names?

In South Korea, Hans is the 16th most common surname of 14,083 surnames recorded there.

Is Hans a male or female name?

Hans is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Hans mean?

Recorded meaning: German short form of Johannes, from Hebrew Yôḥānān meaning “YHWH is gracious”.