Ean is a variant of Ian, the Scottish form of John, and so means "God is gracious" or "Yahweh is merciful"; it is also the Manx Gaelic form of the same name. The spelling keeps the familiar sound while looking fresh on paper. Ean ranked number 970 in 2000, peaked at number 760 in 2007, was still number 979 in 2015 and ranks 1797 in 2025 after dropping out of the top 1000.