Man

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Mann in US United States, GB United Kingdom, NO Norway and 9 more, Muñ in CR Costa Rica, PE Peru, Maina in NG Nigeria, BR Brazil and 문 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●

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◐

Man is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name192K records spelled Man10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, China, Hong Kong

  Also written Mân, Mán, Mận, Mạn, Mān

• English given name138K records spelled Man91 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Maen, Män, Ma'En, Màn, Mẫn

• Vietnamese given name51K records spelled Man59 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, India, Hong Kong

  Also written Mẫn, Min, Mân, Mẩn, Mắn

• Khmer given name20K records spelled Man5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Hong Kong, United States, South Africa

  Also written Màñ, Mān, Măn, Mẫn

• French given name17K records spelled Man55 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Hong Kong, United Kingdom

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Màn, Män, Man', Mäñ, Mãņ

• Indonesian given name16K records spelled Man21 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong

  Also written Mẫn, Màn, Mäñ, Maň, Mãň

• a separate given name9.8K records spelled Man53 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Malaysia, United Kingdom

  Also written Màn, Mån, Mān, Mẫn, Mãñ

73 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●

Man 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, Orthographic variation im Auslaut: ss vs. ß nach Konsonant; 15+150 Belege.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

• 2. Chinese 1^; from a character in the personal name of Hu Gongman, a retainer of Wu Wang. After the latter established the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, he granted the state of Chen to Hu Gongman, whose descendants adopted the second character of his given name, Man, as their surname. This character also means ‘Manchurian’, but the name does not appear to be related to this meaning.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Jewish (Ashkenazic); from the personal name Man, derived from Yiddish ‘man’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• 5. English and Jewish; variant spelling of Mann.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, An adult male human.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 83 years between 1922–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Han Yub. 768CNnot in their usual nameChinese historian, poet, philosopher and politician (768–824)
• Zhu Xib. 1130CNnot in their usual nameChinese historian, neo-Confucian philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty (1130–1200)
• Chōshō-inb. 1548JPnot in their usual nameconcubine of Tokugawa Ieyasu. mother of Yūki Hideyasu
• Sun Yat-senb. 1866CNnot in their usual nameChinese politician, physician, and revolutionary (1866–1925)
• Man Rayb. 1890USAmerican and French visual artist (1890–1976)
• Ip Manb. 1893CNHong Kong martial artist (1893–1972)
• Jiang Wenb. 1963CNnot in their usual nameChinese actor, screenwriter, and director
• Tong Wenb. 1983CNnot in their usual nameChinese judoka
• Cherrie Yingb. 1983TWnot in their usual nameTaiwanese-born Hong Kong actress
• Liang Wenfengb. 1985CNnot in their usual nameChinese businessman (born 1985)

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 · 479 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Man?

We estimate roughly 644 thousand people bear Man (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Man have the most bearers?

We estimate about 464 thousand people bear Man in South Korea, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled 문.

How common is Man compared with other names?

In South Korea, Man is the 24th most common surname of 14,083 surnames recorded there.

Is Man a male or female name?

Man is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.

What does the name Man mean?

Recorded meaning: from OE mann ‘man’; first attested Man 1066 DB (Yorkshire, Suffolk)