Save Gender Masculine Usage Literature, German (Modern, Rare), Dutch Pronounced Pron. DEH-mee-ahn(German) [key] Meaning & History German variant of Damian (via the Ukrainian form Demyan). Since the 1980s, it has been in occasional use in German-speaking countries.Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth, published in 1919, is a novel by Hermann Hesse.