Given name & surname · also Gaelic
Bean
“one who is lively”
Bean is used as a given name and a surname. One Scottish interpretation is “one who is lively.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Scottish interpretation is “one who is lively.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Scottish.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1981. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Bean through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 5
- 5 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1981
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1981. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 323 as a first name in 2020; 35,379 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Bean’s family of names
Bean has a related form in Beane. Bean has a related form in Beann. Bean is an English adaptation of Beathan.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Bean, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Brain
“son of the judge”
>99% boys
Druce
“a wise man; a druid” · “the son of Drew”
>99% boys
Torry
“victorious woman; winner; conqueror” · “from the little hills”
>99% boys
McLean
“the son of John's servant”
80% boys · 20% girls
Glendon
“from the town in the glen”
>99% boys
Guthrie
“from the windy spot”
>99% boys
Shan
“resembling coral” · “one who is wise and elderly”
96% boys · 4% girls
Maclean
“the son of John's servant”
>99% boys