boy's name
Soan
so-AHN
- Origin French
- Gender Boy
- Letters 4
- Popularity Rare
- Births on record 15,299
France
#82
2025 births
Soan is a boy's name, generally treated as a French variant of Sohan, of Sanskrit origin meaning "handsome." It ranks eighty-second in France, and it is one of the newest names in our entire dataset, first recorded in 2024.
- Soan is a name of French origin.
- Peaked in France in 2020, when 1,140 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade in France.
- Today about 1 in 781 babies in France is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1998.
Soan over time
Births per decade in France, 1990s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1990s | 10 |
| 2000s | 950 |
| 2010s | 8,360 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 5,895 |
What Soan means
Soan carries the meaning of Sohan: handsome, charming or pleasing, from Sanskrit. As a respelling it has no independent sense, and reference works that assign it one are working from the parent name.
Where Soan comes from
Soan is a French respelling of Sohan, from the Sanskrit for handsome or charming, dropping the h in the way French orthography often does with borrowed aspirates. It belongs to a cluster of short French boys' names ending in -an that have risen together — Sohan, Ayaan, Rayan, Aylan and Yanis among them — and which draw on South Asian and North African naming without belonging exclusively to either. Because the spelling is so recent, no reference work has documentation for it, and several simply list it as a variant without offering a derivation, which is the honest position.
Soan in use
Soan ranks eighty-second in France with about 775 births in 2025, and our records first carry it in 2024 — the shortest recorded history of any name in the French top hundred. Its parent Sohan sits at 65th and is falling, so the respelling is rising as the original declines, which is a pattern worth watching rather than a coincidence. Elsewhere it is absent, beyond 5,400 in England and Wales.
How popular is Soan?
In 2025, Soan was given to 755 babies in France, ranking #82 that year. It is a rare choice.
Where Soan is used
French counts are rounded to the nearest five and nothing below five is published, so these figures show the shape of the name's use rather than an exact tally. Data & sources.
How Soan is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Soän | Soän is Soan written with a diaeresis, used in France, where it ranks #1,452. | 215 |
| Soân | Soân is a rare spelling of Soan, written with a circumflex and recorded about 20 times, mostly in France. | 20 |
| Söan | Söan is a rare spelling of Soan, written with a diaeresis and recorded about 10 times, mostly in France. | 10 |
| Soàn | Soàn is a rare spelling of Soan, written with a grave accent and recorded about 5 times, mostly in France. | 5 |
Names that peaked alongside Soan
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Soan also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Soan over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Soan in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Soan
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Soan — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Soan
What does the name Soan mean?
It carries the meaning of Sohan: handsome or charming, from Sanskrit.
Is Soan the same as Sohan?
It is generally treated as a French respelling of it, dropping the h.
How new is Soan?
Our records first carry it in 2024, the shortest history of any name in the French top hundred.
How popular is Soan?
Eighty-second in France, while the parent Sohan at 65th is falling.
Is Soan a girl's or a boy's name?
Soan is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
Is Soan a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Soan currently ranks #82 in France. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.