Hannan
A name of Semitic origin meaning "blissful, fortunate one".
Name Census estimates that about 587 living Americans carry the first name Hannan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Hannan today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hannan births was 1993 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hannan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Hannan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
587
~ 1 in 583,909 Americans
Peak year
1993
30 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,379
Tracked since 1978
Census
Hannan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 878 people with the first name Hannan, which placed it at #13,660 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#13,660
National first-name rank
People counted
878
878 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hannan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hannan is White at 49.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.1%) and Black (19.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Hannan described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Hannan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.2% · 432
- Asian and Pacific Islander21.1% · 185
- Black or African American19.6% · 172
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 54
- Two or more races3.8% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Hannan
Hannan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 600 total registrations, 132 (22.0%) were male and 468 (78.0%) were female.
Hannan as a male name
- Ranked #11,379 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (11 births)
Hannan as a female name
- Ranked #12,597 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1998 (25 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hannan on both sides of the split. Of the 877 people counted with this name, 239 were male (27.3%) and 638 were female (72.7%).
Popularity
Hannan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hannan from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 181 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Hannan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hannan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Hannan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hannans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Hannan
The name Hannan has its origins in Arabic culture, dating back to the 7th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic root word "hanna," which means "to long for" or "to yearn for." The name is believed to have been given to individuals who were deeply devoted to their faith or had a strong desire for spiritual enlightenment.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Hannan can be found in Islamic literature, specifically in the Hadith, which are the recorded sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad. In these texts, Hannan is mentioned as a companion of the Prophet and is praised for his piety and devotion to Islam.
Throughout history, the name Hannan has been borne by several notable figures. One of the most prominent was Hannan ibn Thabit (died 673 CE), an Arab poet who lived during the early days of Islam. He was known for his eloquent verses and his unwavering support for the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslim community.
Another significant figure was Hannan al-Shafi'i (767-820 CE), a renowned Islamic scholar and jurist. He was a leading figure in the development of Islamic jurisprudence and is considered one of the founders of the Shafi'i school of Islamic law, which is one of the four major Sunni schools of jurisprudence.
In the 12th century, Hannan al-Mawsili (1114-1187 CE) was a celebrated Arab musician and composer. He is credited with contributing significantly to the development of Arabic music theory and is regarded as one of the greatest musicians of the medieval Islamic world.
Moving forward in history, Hannan al-Hassani (1805-1882 CE) was a prominent Ottoman scholar and historian from present-day Lebanon. He is best known for his extensive writings on the history of the Arab world and his contributions to the preservation of Arabic literature and culture.
Another notable figure was Hannan al-Jaziri (1899-1979 CE), an influential Islamic scholar and jurist from Syria. He was a prolific writer and is renowned for his book "Al-Fiqh 'ala al-Madhahib al-Arba'ah" (Jurisprudence According to the Four Schools of Law), which is considered a seminal work on Islamic jurisprudence.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Hannan, reflecting its deep-rooted significance in Arabic and Islamic culture.
People
Hannan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hannan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hannan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hannan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 587 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hannan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 583,909 US residents.
Is Hannan a common name?
We classify Hannan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 600 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hannan most popular?
The single biggest year for Hannan was 1993, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hannan is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hannan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 878 people with the name Hannan, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,660 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Hannan in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Hannan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hannan on both sides of the split. Of the 877 people counted with this name, 239 were male (27.3%) and 638 were female (72.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Hannan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hannan is White at 49.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.1%) and Black (19.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Hannan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hannan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.2% (432 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Hannan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hannan a female name?
Yes, 78.0% of people registered as Hannan in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Hannan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hannan in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Hannan can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Hannan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.