Evan

The name developed in Wales as a regional form of Ieuan, a local cognate of John. It crossed the Atlantic in the nineteenth century, establishing early pockets across Pennsylvania mining towns and Ohio farming counties. National birth tallies remained modest until the late nineteen-seventies, when parents began adopting it as a softer alternative to names like Kevin and Brian.

An Evan belongs almost entirely to the first decade of the twenty-first century. The name reached its high point in 2007, the year the first iPhone arrived, when about ten thousand newborn boys received it. With an average age of twenty-four, the name tends to be pictured with a commuter bicycle and an unread email from a dentist. It reads as mild, low-maintenance, and unlikely to dispute an incorrect diner receipt.