Zan

Diminutive of Alexander, Greek

"defending men"

Zan Origin and Meaning

The name Zan is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defending men".

There's Zan and there's Xan--take your pick. Both of these are the latest generation of Alexander nicknames, Xan having been noticed first as a character on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (a rich source of names), and soon phoneticized into Zan.

Only a handful of baby boys are given Zan or Xan as a full name each year. Zander and Xander are much more popular, with Zander used for about 1000 baby boys annually in the US vs. Xander, given to nearly 2000.

King of them all is full name Alexander, a Top 25 boys' name in the US for three decades, given last year to about 8500 baby boys. There are lots of nicknames for Alexander, but some of those baby Alexanders are inevitably called Zan or Xan, making this short form much more popular than the numbers suggest.

Zan Popularity

• 1972 Nameberry 2019

20 Names Similar to Zan

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Zan.

• Draxler
• Tolly
• Jabiru
• Jahziel
• Pedra
• Magdolina
• Zan
• Ameer
• Boswell
• Ademar
• Retta
• Milda
• Jamari
• Zared
• Omer
• Amazu
• Roswell
• Al
• Brewster
• Corine

Famous People Named Zan

• Žan Tabak Croatian basketball player
• Žan Košir Slovenian snowboarder
• Žan Kranjec Slovenian skier
• Žan Marolt Bosnian actor
• Alexander "Zan" Guerry III American tennis player
• Zan Ganassa (born Alberto Naseli) Italian commedia dell'arte actor
• Zan Perrion Canadian relationship coach
• Zan Trinidadian soca singer
• Zinny J. Zan (born Bo Stagman) Swedish singer of band the Zan Clan

Zan in Pop Culture

• Zan an eagle in the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series
• Zan main character in the video game Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman
• Zan one of the Wonder Twins in the Super Friends series