Name Awesome

Can

#7,272 in 2025Boys' name

Soul, life

Can has been given to 554 babies in the U.S. since 1970. In 2025 it ranked #7,272 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2018, with 30 recorded.

Babies named Can, 2025

1 in 301,000

Can over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Can: meaning, origin, and history

Soul, life

Persian and West Circassian

What Can means

Can means “soul, life”.

Origin, language, and formation

Can is used in English and Turkish. Its origins include Persian and West Circassian.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Turkish, Can is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒan/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 554 boys were recorded with the name Can between 1970 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 30 in 2018; its best national rank was #3,612 in 2018.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #7,605 in 2020 to #7,272 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,911 in 2015 to #7,272 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Can?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 301,000
11 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 155,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,272
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
208,901 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Can sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 208,901 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Can. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Can was born before 2011 — so the typical Can is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
36.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
74.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
554
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 36.6% of all recorded uses (203).

Is Can rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,935
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+333
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,361
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.58×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
36.7%
Peak was 2018 (30)
Years since peak
7
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,612
2018

Where Can is used

Across 1910–2025, Can was most concentrated in Florida — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 371,852 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Florida1 in 100,000
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Can has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Can around the world

Where Can ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #3,256
    in 2025
  • France
    1977–2025
    #3,327
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2023–2023
    #2,931
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    2005–2005
    #643
    in 2005

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Can by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,272
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 333
Best rank ever
#3,612
2018
Peak year
2018
30 that year
First recorded
1970
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
554
Count in 2025
11

Names similar to Can

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CaneCantonLucanCannanCanonCaneloCananCanyonLorcanCandidoCandenCandyCannenCanaanCanioCandonCanekCanutoCannonCantrellLycanDeacanCandaceCandice

Sibling names for Can

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Can

Top names of 2018, Can's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2018Boys' names starting with CUncommon Turkish Boy Names