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♀ Van (girl)
What does Van mean?
Van 
as a girls' name (also used more regularly as boys' name Van) is pronounced van. It is of Danish origin, and the meaning of Van is "of". The Dutch equivalent of "de" in French names. When some early immigrants to America dropped this prefix from their surnames, they converted it to a given name. Van is also used as a short form of Vanessa.
SEE ALSO Vanna
STARTS WITH Va-
ASSOCIATED WITH surnames
Variations
RELATIONS VIA VANESSA Vanesa▼, Vaneza, Vania, Vanija, Vanisa, Vanita, Vanna, Vannie, Vanya, Venna
MASCULINE FORM Von
CREATIVE FORMS(female)
(male)
MIDDLE NAME PAIRINGS
Van Flora (V.F.), ..
How popular is Van?
Van is a very prominent first name for females (#1716 out of 4276, Top 40%) and also a very prominent surname for both adults and children (#2653 out of 150436, Top 2%). (2000 U.S. DEMOGRAPHICS)
Van was first listed in 1880-1889 and reached its highest position of #1737 in the U.S. then, but is not in the list at the moment. (TOP BABY NAMES, 2018)
Which version is better?
Vanessa (#230 A YEAR AGO), Vanesa, Vania, Vanita and Vannie are the prominent related forms of Van. Other variants, like Vanija, are seldom used. These forms of Van reached the apex of their popularity during 1980-1989 (AVERAGE #1554) and are now much less widespread (#1705, ▼79%), with forms such as Vanesa becoming somewhat dated.
Similar Names
Suggested similar-sounding names are Fan, Jan▼, Nan▼, San, Val and Vana. These names tend to be less commonly used than Van.
See names in meaning and etymology.[Top]