A male first name with Breton origins takes us around the world. Exotic, famous in India, it is also an Iranian dessert specialty. It is not surprising that this first name breaks into the French top 60, and elsewhere.
Some old first names are no longer really popular these days. This is the case of the first name Jean, which is the most common in France among men, with a peak in 1946 (53,502 boys named that), but which has been in decline for many years. There were only 607 Jeans left in 2022. This first name nevertheless remains widely used in its compound version (Jean-Baptiste, Jean-Louis, Jean-Christophe, Jean-Luc, Jean-Claude, Jean-Etienne…).
One of its derivative versions is also very successful with young parents around the world, particularly in the Wallis and Futuna Islands. It is a multicultural first name par excellence since it also refers to Breton origins (a derivative of the first name Yves, Soen). The male first name Soan, which can also be written Sohan, Soann, or Soane, means “star” in Arabic and “magnificent” or “beautiful” in Sanskrit. He travels around the world, being particularly famous in India. And that’s not all: in Iran, Sohan is none other than the name of a delicious traditional pastry. In Europe, Sohan also refers to Belgium, thanks to a locality in the province of Liège.
From 2009, this first name experienced a meteoric rise in France. This success seems directly linked to Julien Decroix’s (known as Soan) victory in the show Nouvelle Star, the same year. Result : “Soan’s attributions have been multiplied by 6 in one year” going from 100 to 627 boys named like this, reports the work L’Officiel des Noms 2024 published by First.
The first name Sohan is making a breakthrough in the French top 60 as well as in overseas regions such as Guadeloupe and Martinique, where it is positioned in the first 20 places in the ranking. As for the first name Soan (without the H), it is “on the verge of entering the national top 50 and is already in the 50 first names of Côtes-d’Armor, Finistère and Ile-et-Vilaine”, specify the authors of the work Claire Tabarly Perrin and Stéphanie Rapoport.
According to them, the ending in “an” promises a bright future for this pretty first name, as was the case for Erwan, Evan, Loan, Logan or Nolan, Irish-Breton first names. In France, Sohan is the 144th most given male first name since the year 2000. It is given to almost one boy in 340 and today there are one boy in 320 for Soan. A name that could inspire many parents in the coming years.