The baby name Nan is as simple as Mae, as retro as Nell.
Thanks to Nan for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
WHAT DOES THE NAME NAN MEAN?
Regal, saintly Ann was once among the most common names given to women, along Anne and Anna. It comes from the Hebrew name Hannah, meaning grace or favor.
Also popular once upon a time: Annis, a medieval English version of Agnes.
Queue the nicknames.
But how do you wrest a nickname from a single-syllable, three or four letter name?
In English-speaking countries, there’s Annie, of course.
Other languages elaborate, giving us names like Anita and Annette.
But the baby name Nan introduces one more possibility.
The phrase “Mon Anne” or “Mine Ann” yielded yet another option. Say “Mine Anne” five times fast and you’ll hear the nickname develop: “My Nan.”
Ned and Nell have similar origins.
So the meaning of Nan? “My Ann.”
NANCY, NANETTE, and MORE NAN NAMES
Nan- names evolved from there, including:
- Nancy, now a completely separate name
- Nanon in French
- Nannie, though that brings to mind Mary Poppins and such
- Nana means grandma to many, but in some languages it’s another Nan name, or even a diminutive form of names like Joanna
- Nanette follows logically, too – just like Annette
In fact, 1925’s musical comedy No, No, Nanette became a movie – twice – and inspired parents. Nanette ranked in the US Top 1000 every year from 1925 into the mid-1970s.
KING NAN and NANKING
There’s also King Nan. In Chinese, Nan can be a masculine name. King Nan of Zhou reigned from 314 to 256 BC, the last of his house.
The city of Nanjing, in eastern China, seems to echo his name. But it’s not so. Instead, it means “southern capital.” Historically, it was called Nanking by English speakers, but the preferred spelling is now Nanjing.
Any short name almost always appears in other languages and cultures.
MORE FAMOUS NANS
The name has been used for centuries in English. You might think of famous personalities and fictional figures like:
- The Bobbsey Twins – a long-running series of children’s stories written by the same group behind the Nancy Drew novels – included not one, but two sets of twins: Freddie and Flossie, plus their older siblings, Burt and Nan Bobbsey.
- Nan Flanagan, the smooth-talking publicist for the American Vampire League on HBO’s True Blood.
- In the 1920s, Nan Britton kick-started a genre with her scandalous tell-all memoir about her affair with President Warren G. Harding.
- Actress Nan Martin’s career spanned the 1950s into the early 2000s. Her roles ranged from a friend of The Golden Girls to Freddy Kreuger’s mom in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
- Artist and museum director Nan Sheets had an interesting given name: Nannine.
- Also from the arts world: photographer Nan Goldin, born Nancy.
- Nan Kempner was a New York City socialite known for making the best dressed list as a fashion icon. She raised money for worthy causes, too, like the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In her case, Nan was her birth name.
- Another famous woman born with the first name Nan? Pulitzer-winning journalist Nan C. Robertson, who spent much of her long career at The New York Times.
There are dozens more, some born Nancy or Ann or something else entirely.
But the most famous bearer of the baby name Nan right now is probably a fictional character.
THE BUCCANEERS
When writer Edith Wharton passed away in 1937, she left an unfinished manuscript: The Buccaneers.
Wharton was born to a Gilded Age family, with all the wealth and privilege that suggests. Her maiden name was Jones – the very family that inspired the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses.”
In her writing, she told those stories.
The Buccaneers centered on five wildly wealthy and vivacious young American women of marriageable age during the 1870s. After one of their circle marries a British aristocrat, the others join her in England to make their debuts.
Drama follows, but what’s important are the names. There’s Conchita Closson, the first to marry into the aristocracy, followed by sisters Elizabeth “Lizzy” and Mabel Elmsworth. And then are the St. George sisters: Virginia called Jinny, and Annabel, known as Nan.
The unfinished novel was published in 1938. Attempts to complete the story have followed: a published version by writer Marion Mainwaring in 1993; a BBC/PBS production in 1995 that aired in both the United Kingdom and the United States that year; and, most recently, an Apple+ series.
The success of the 2023 miniseries, which just finished its second season in August 2025, puts the spotlight on the baby name Nan once again. Kristine Froseth plays Nan St. George in the latest incarnation of the story.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME NAN?
The baby name Nan ranked in the US Top 1000 as a standalone name every year from 1880 through 1962.
It might’ve been far more popular, of course, as a nickname form of Anne or Nancy or a dozen other names. After all, in the year 1900 the following names ranked in the US Top 1000: Anna, Annie, Ann, Anne, Annette, Annetta, Annabel, Annabelle, Annabell, Annis, Hannah, Hanna, Nancy, and Nannie. Exact levels of popularity can be tough to pinpoint.
But here’s the thing: as a standalone, Nan is on the very edge of obscurity in 2024. Fewer than five girls received the name. The same was true in 2023. Going back to 2022, just seven births were recorded.
Again, Nan’s nickname potential means that it’s impossible to say that the name isn’t in use. But it does feel like it’s teetering on extinction.
SPRIGHTLY AND ELEGANT
And yet, the baby name Nan feels sprightly and elegant. It’s old school vintage. But it’s also very 21st century minimalist. It can be a nickname, but just like Nell or Mae, Nan stands on its own.
With The Buccaneers putting Nan back in the spotlight, this might be the ultimate literary-meets-now kind of choice. It’s a sophisticated name in the same category as Bridgerton’s Daphne or The Gilded Age’s Aurora. But for the moment, Nan remains very rare.
If your perfect name blends vintage with minimalism, energy with restraint? The baby name Nan could be just right for you.
What do you think of the baby name Nan?
First published on September 10, 2010, this post was revised on October 20, 2014, and September 4, 2025.
There is also Anthea “Nan” Harding (not to be confused with the aforementioned or their daughter) from Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Men (a continuation of Little Women) who was a doctor-career-dreaming Victorian girl in a time when females we’re at most nurses.
“Mon Anne” is “My Ann” not “Mine Ann”, “mine” being “la mienne/le mien” (depending on whether what you are referring to has a female or male connotation. But good post otherwise.
My name is Nan, born in Wales and moved to the UK. I really wished I had changed it, it’s my biggest regret. It’s a very hard name to live with.
Nan is utterly dull to me. I do like the Old Norse, Nanna.
I find that very offensive! My full name is Nan and many people think it’s very interesting!
My full name is “Nan” too. Glad to hear I am not alone. I am always having to convince people that it is not short for anything.
? it although my octogenarian Nan/Nanny is still very much around and it wouldn’t work. I may or may not refer to my youngest as the redundant Little Nan occasionally. Her middles, Anne Juniper, can be seen as a subtle nod to Nan June (as well as being another familial honorific).
I love Nell too. It’s FAR more serviceable and was a first name (and middle name) consideration.
Funny about the grandma thing. I thought of naming my 2nd girl Zadie, but then realized that it is Yiddish for Gramps! We’re not Jewish, but it still seemed too odd.
*tucks that info away*’
I saw Zadie recently in an Australian BA, I’m sure of it.
I think I know more people here in NZ that refer to their grandmothers as Nan/Nanny/Nana/Nanna than grandma/granny etc. I guess if a Kiwi wanted an uncommon, refreshing, extremely vintage name that was also highly problematic, maybe laughable and confusing to most, Nan would be it.
The alternative Nancy is safer.
Anna nicknamed Nan could be a possibility, but Nan… as a full name, seems incomplete.
Ditto.
My gramma was a Nancy, called Nanny by the other grandkids [she was ALWAYS Gramma to me!]. So Nanny seems like another term for grandmother, rather than a proper name/nickname.
My full name is Nan! I love it and so do other people! It’s a great name!
Charlotte Vera – you beat me to it! It’s a nice, short palindrome name…similar to Ava I suppose, but with only one syllable.
CV – did you notice that she gave her twin girls reversed names…maybe as a way to feel better about her own red-headed childhood.
In the Anne of Green Gables sequels, Anne and Gilbert have twins named Anne and Diana, but called Nan and Di. The name itself does seem a little too nickname-ish for me, although it is a pretty nickname.
I had a Nana but we never called her Nan. I like Nan as a nickname for all the names you mentioned, but it seems too spare for a given name.
Another Nan is the name of the goat in Tammy And The Bachelor, starring Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Nielsen.
It’s a sweet nickname but Nan is what a lot of people in Britain call their grandmothers, short for Nana or Nanny.
I don’t hear that so much in the US, but Nana, yes – it was actually what we called my great-grandmother, Anna, to distinguish her from her daughter. It must be fairly common, because there are always Mother’s Day cards for “Nana” on the rack.
Anyone else have a Nan? I guess if you do, it makes the idea of naming a newborn Nan almost impossible.
My kids have a Nan/Nana (Nan is the short version, as previously mentioned)… yeah, it pretty much does the name in… it’s all grandma for me.
Yeah, it’s too close to ‘Grandma’ for me. I personally called my grandmas “Nanna”, but have heard many Brits say “Nan”.
There’s a Star Trek: DS9 actress called Nana Visitor and I always found Nana very unusual for a first name.
I thought of Nana Visitor too. I also had an art teacher in grade school named Nana, and I always thought it was strange.