Ian

Makes me think of Ian Curtis of Joy Division (rip). Very mature name.

Wowie! Crazy Name lol pretty good solid 8/6.

Reminds me of the mathematician from Jurassic Park.

Looks as if it should be pronounced IE-un so I think it would cause a lot of confusion. I don’t like it.

Sounds very intelligent.

I like it, it's short and hard to misspell, but it is quite boring.

Cute.

I associate it with the sound a donkey would make.

I'm a 70yo American man named Ian. My mom was from the UK and of course it's popular there. When I was a kid I hated the name because it was so often mispronounced or misspelled. All thru school my friends and classmates pronounced it with just one syllable, "Inn", because I was too shy to correct them. I lived in the Midwest and it was an unusual name there. In my teen years a few British rock stars and others became known in US popular culture and I then felt a little better about it. After my teenage years, I found that many girls liked it because it was different. I didn't meet another Ian until I was 30 and since then I've met only a very few others with the name. Even today, I'd say 60-70% of the people I meet get it wrong.

I really like this name :) It's cute and has a nice ring to it.

Soooo cutee.

Cute.

I thought I liked this name until I decided to yell "Eeee-an" a few times across the room and it sounds way too whiny for me.

Nothing much to say. Too short. Looks boring. Sound also nothing interesting. There are so many better names.

I love this name!

I came across name "Ian" when I was looking for a name change (being foreign country with rare non-English name can be challenging at different times). I agree that this name is pretty short and sweet, but I found that it can be confusing because there is another name "Ion".

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Ian and Ion are two very similar names.

I love this name and it helps being both my father in law's name and the name my father uses. I love that it’s a name everyone knows and yet it is uncommon where I live for children at the moment. Definitely top of husband and my list for our bump.

Ugly. And then there will be the problem of people mispronouncing the I sound one way or another. What's wrong with just using John, or any of its other better-sounding variants?

I could not come up with a name for my youngest son. My husband chose Ian because it was based on my grandfather's name which was John. I really have grown to love the uniqueness of his name.

Not bad. I kinda like the sound of it.

Not bad, but it's quite popular where I live.

I like Ian because it is simple and pretty ageless.

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Unfortunately there are few characters with this name that I like plus the name is just a variant of John and it's too similar to Ivan.

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I rate it 7/10 that means: "it could be among my favourites but... no thanks".

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It is more friendly than many other names though.

It’s okay, I’m kind of mixed about it.

Lindo nome, masculino, jovem, incomum, original e atemporal.

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[trans: Beautiful name, masculine, young, unusual, original and timeless.]

My name is Ian and I'm from South Wales (It was meant to be Iain but the registrar got it wrong - LOL)
A previous comment said "My parents told me they chose that name because it couldn't be shortened" - tell my sister... she just calls me "Ee". However, conversely being a three letter word it nearly always gets lengthened - does anyone else have that experience? What is the most creative extended version you've have thrown at you? I've had Ianny, Iannypoos and Iantolinus to name a few!
I like the name - it's not unique but not common enough to make it... er... common.

Unlike many first names, Ian has never peaked into a trendy name lasting a few years and even a decade or two: think of Stephen and Andrew in the 1950's and 60's. It did, however, have a short and modest spell of popularity in the late 1940's. Not in my generation though: in all my primary and secondary schooldays, from age 5 to 18, I was the only 'Ian' in the school. So I didn't like it, being the odd one out. People used to mispronounce it, too, making it sound like 'iron'. I thought they were just ignorant.

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My parents told me they chose that name because it couldn't be shortened, so I was saved that common curse anyway. I like the name very much now. For reasons that other people have listed.

Ian (my name) is short and goes well with longer last and middle names. 9/10 only because people butcher it.

Eu gosto de Ian, é simples e elegante, significa "Deus é gracioso" ou "graça de Deus".

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[trans: I like Ian, it's simple and elegant, it means "God is graceful" or "grace of God".]

Ian é um nome lindo curto e forte.

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[trans: Ian is a beautiful short and strong name.]

My name be Ian, and IAIN IS WRONG. Can't you see it? It's like saying "ee- II - nn".

I don’t like the way this name sounds. EEEEEEE an. Really whiny. A kid in my class was named Ian and one substitute teacher butchered it in a way I didn’t know was possible: EYE-ANN. Also, peein’ Ian if, God forbid, your kid ever wets his pants at school.

It's a short and independent name. I like it :)

We named our second son Ian after not agreeing on any names. My husband wanted a traditional Italian name, none of which felt right after our son was born. We chose a variation of my husbands nickname from his grandmother for our son's middle name, satisfying tradition (Dominic was called Nicky, turned into Nicholas for our son).
So my husband loved the name Gideon, which again did not feel right, looking at my newborn son. Exhausted and giving up the fight hours after delivering our son, I said Gideon would be called Ian. My husband wrote out the name Ian Nicholas, and we both knew that was the name for our child. He is an Ian, classic, strong and beautiful.
Problem with the name: people mispronounce it - most annoying is EE-ON, like Eon, like a term stating a long period of time. Our last name is often mispronounced as well, so pick your battles, right?
Favorite nicknames, specifically fitting to our son: Roughian; also has initials IND, we often call him Indi (later realizing he is extremely independent).
At 6 years old, we have yet to meet another Ian.

My youngest son has the name "Ian" I really like it & didn't hear it really until my Ian & now I know of a few.

I like it a lot, but it's kind of too common...(Lots of handsome guys are named Ian, that I've met).

I think this name is an exceptional example of the beauty of simpler/shorter names. Ian, although it is a variation of a pre-existing name, holds so much of its own luster to me, including characteristics of strength, beauty and power. It's a very charismatic name!

Even though I imagine an old person with this name, I think the name Ian is very handsome, respectable, strong, classy masculine name! :)

I named my son Ian and loved it when I said it in my head. But now I've discovered that it is very easily misunderstood. Ee-in can sound like Aaand (with a long a sound) from across the room. I kept hearing my kids say Ian, when they weren't really saying his name at all. I found it very confusing and got aggravated hearing it all the time. So now I call him by his middle name Carter. Also, I think Ian is easily misunderstood because of its lack of a hard consonant in the middle of the name. Names like Ethan, have the th in the middle and you can hear better.

My name is IAIN the true spelling of IAN. The name Ian is an embarrassment for any proud Scot who bears it as it almost immediately shows a lack of knowledge of Scottish Names. Many Ians become Iains when they become aware. Like many truly Scottish names they have been bastardised bad English misspellings and this is evident in names which are used for both forename and surname in Calum and Alison. One l is the correct forename and two ls are the surname however English produced name plates and other souvenirs spell IAIN as IAN and CALUM as CALLUM this makes me particularly annoyed as my son is the correctly named CALUM.

The I can be pronounced as Ee or Eye. I have met an EE-n and an Eye-n.

I like this version better than John, because it's slightly less common. My dad's name is Jonathan, he often shortens it to Jon, and even though he's a great guy I prefer the form Ian. It's short, yet has two syllables, which means if my future husband has a one syllable surname it won't matter (I have a one syllable name that does NOT flow at all with my short surname, and I can't stand it).

This name is a bit simple and boring.

I love the name Ian. I'm not really sure how they got Ian out of John. But either way, while it remains one of my favorite names, I doubt I would use it because I feel like it's becoming far too popular in the USA.

A very cool name. Unfortunately, it's becoming a tad too popular in the U.S.

This name is simple, but not too simple, and has a nice ring to it.

Love this name. It's my little brother's so I might be a bit biased but it's not overused like so many other names.

I personally love this name. It's simple, short and good-sounding.

This is my name and I love it! I've yet to meet another Ian before. It has a nice ring to it and is way better than the worn-out name John.

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It can also be spelled Ein, Ean, or Iann. Can also be pronounced I-an instead of EE-an.

I like names that end in -ian (Adrian, Caspian, Damian, Octavian, etc.), but I hate Ian all by itself.

This is my favorite name for a boy! It's strong and has a nice ring to it. I've only met one Ian my whole life, which is nice, considering I've met sooooo many Johns.

I dislike this name. It sounds too Anglo-phile, too fey and prissy. Sounds like a name for a poindexter with glasses.

My best friend Stephanie loves this name. For a girl. She likes to be called this instead of her real name (Roxana Stephanie). Personally, I don't like it on a girl.

Yes, I'm a girl and Ian is my middle name, I honestly feel it's a unsex name but that's my humble opinion. I love my middle and first name and nothing could make me feel otherwise, even if guys do have it! haha.

I thought for a long time that Ian was pronounced JAN, and I didn't like it. Now I know the real pronunciation, but I still don't like it.

I like Ian, it's not as widely used as John and it's at least as nice. It's more unique and has more character.

Cute name! Love it!

I'm a little biased here but I can add some insight - I legally had my name changed to Ian from "Ivan" to avoid confusion with my dad who had the same name.

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Best thing about the name is that I don't get any "Ivan the terrible comments" anymore. Still, my wife and I won't be naming our son after me. I don't want the confusion between jr and sr.

Ian is a great name for a boy, it sounds handsome and strong and isn't a fad name which is nice.

Ian is an English version of John, which is the masculine version of Jane, which is Hebrew for Siobhan - my name. So my dad and I have linked names! I like the name Ian, because it cannot really be shortened!