Iain
given name · English · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Iain is a given name, with more bearers in Poland than in any other country. In New Zealand it is the 27th most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: A male given name from Scottish Gaelic, equivalent to English John.
- NONorway1 in 126◐
- DKDenmark1 in 167
- SISlovenia1 in 237
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈2.1M ●
- #698 ●
- 8 ●
- Sources
- 551 ●
- 1 in 18 ◐
across 13 countries
of 16M given names
recorded for this name
2.2M records
Official registry-verified
Czechia
Spellings & scripts●
Locally spelled Ian in US United States, GB United Kingdom, BR Brazil and 21 more, יאן in PL Poland, ג'ן in IL Israel and 이안 in KR South Korea.
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●
A male given name from Scottish Gaelic, equivalent to English John.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PL Poland | — | 872,750△ | 683 rec. | 1 in 44 | 873K | יאן | 16 |
| GB United Kingdom | #41 | 736,817 | 447K rec. | — | 33 | Ian | 326 |
| CZ Czechia | — | 587,876△ | 2 rec. | 1 in 18 | 588K | — | 3 |
| AR Argentina | #308 | 381,663 | 137K rec. | — | 3.1K | Ian | 101 |
| AU Australia | #64 | 303,034 | 207K rec. | — | 103 | Ian | 312 |
| US United States | #398 | 222,162 | 1.1M rec. | 1 in 1.5K | 222K | Ian | 551 |
| PH Philippines | #88 | 174,024 | 95K rec. | — | — | Ian | 167 |
| SE Sweden | — | 123,701△ | 837 rec. | 1 in 82 | 124K | Ian | 91 |
| FR France | — | 86,775△ | 1.5K rec. | 1 in 782 | 87K | Iain | 119 |
| CA Canada | #197 | 70,234 | 51K rec. | — | 38 | Ian | 253 |
| BR Brazil | #666 | 62,323△ | 18K rec. | 1 in 3.4K | 62K | Ian | 159 |
| MX Mexico | #608 | 44,236 | 12K rec. | — | 54 | Ian | 164 |
Roughly 873K people in Poland bear this name (about 1 in 44). Estimates project the name's share of our records onto national population, so each is only as good as the record base beside it — the Basis column gives that base; rows marked △ rest on fewer records than the estimate itself and are order-of-magnitude at best.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- English128K84%
- Spanish3.2K2%
- Chinese2.2K1%
- German2.2K1%
- French1.8K1%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| English | 127,851 | 84% |
| Spanish | 3,237 | 2% |
| Chinese | 2,235 | 1% |
| German | 2,174 | 1% |
| French | 1,849 | 1% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
Iain is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Scottish Gaelic, a male given name, equivalent to English John
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In cdo, daring, reckless, (dudi-ding)
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
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●
Show as table
| Year | records |
|---|---|
| 1953 | 6 |
| 1956 | 5 |
| 1957 | 5 |
| 1960 | 8 |
| 1961 | 10 |
| 1962 | 5 |
| 1963 | 8 |
| 1964 | 15 |
| 1965 | 14 |
| 1966 | 7 |
| 1967 | 8 |
| 1968 | 15 |
| 1969 | 22 |
| 1970 | 19 |
| 1971 | 12 |
| 1972 | 15 |
| 1973 | 9 |
| 1974 | 16 |
| 1975 | 15 |
| 1976 | 17 |
| 1977 | 19 |
| 1978 | 19 |
| 1979 | 16 |
| 1980 | 16 |
| 1981 | 22 |
| 1982 | 32 |
| 1983 | 35 |
| 1984 | 33 |
| 1985 | 29 |
| 1986 | 34 |
| 1987 | 49 |
| 1988 | 33 |
| 1989 | 37 |
| 1990 | 29 |
| 1991 | 46 |
| 1992 | 56 |
| 1993 | 44 |
| 1994 | 52 |
| 1995 | 63 |
| 1996 | 86 |
| 1997 | 76 |
| 1998 | 74 |
| 1999 | 92 |
| 2000 | 95 |
| 2001 | 98 |
| 2002 | 113 |
| 2003 | 126 |
| 2004 | 124 |
| 2005 | 106 |
| 2006 | 90 |
| 2007 | 85 |
| 2008 | 79 |
| 2009 | 95 |
| 2010 | 67 |
| 2011 | 69 |
| 2012 | 69 |
| 2013 | 48 |
| 2014 | 59 |
| 2015 | 50 |
| 2016 | 44 |
| 2017 | 35 |
| 2018 | 38 |
| 2019 | 43 |
| 2020 | 45 |
| 2021 | 23 |
| 2022 | 27 |
| 2023 | 24 |
| 2024 | 25 |
| 2025 | 11 |
US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 69 years between 1953–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.
Notable people with this name●
- Iain Macleodb. 1913GBBritish politician, cabinet minister and contract bridge player (1913-1970)
- Murray Roseb. 1939AUnot in their usual nameAustralian swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, former world record-holder (1939-2012)
- Iain Smithb. 1949GBScottish film producer
- Iain Banksb. 1954GBScottish writer (1954–2013)
- Iain Duncan Smithb. 1954GBBritish politician
- Iain Softleyb. 1956GBBritish film director
- Iain Glenb. 1961GBScottish actor
- Iain Canningb. 1979GBBritish film producer
- Iain De Caesteckerb. 1987GBScottish actor
- Iain Armitageb. 2008USAmerican actor
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●
Attested in 46 sources across 29 countries.
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 383 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Iain?
- We estimate roughly 2.1 million people bear Iain (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.
- In which country does Iain have the most bearers?
- We estimate about 873 thousand people bear Iain in Poland, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled יאן.
- Where is Iain most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Iain is densest in the Czechia — about 1 in 18 people — even though Poland holds more of our records for it.
- How common is Iain compared with other names?
- In New Zealand, Iain is the 27th most common given name of 22,472 given names recorded there.
- Is Iain a male or female name?
- Iain 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 Iain mean?
- Recorded meaning: A male given name from Scottish Gaelic, equivalent to English John.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/iainThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Iain” — the 27th most common given name in New Zealand. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.