Van began as a short form of names like Vance, Ivan and Evan and also echoes the Dutch surname prefix van, which marks a place of origin; the Vietnamese name Van, meaning "cloud" or "literature", is a separate source. The actor Van Johnson, the pianist Van Cliburn and the singer Van Morrison gave it a mid-century cool that has lingered. Van entered the US top 1000 in 2005, peaked at number 754 in 2010 and ranks number 972 among boys' names in 2025.