by Brent Lemieux

Created on: February 14, 2008

EVAN (EV-an) is a masculine given name of Welsh origin. It is a varient of the Gaelic name anglicized as John (Hebrew) which translates into "The Lord is Gracious."

It carries a number of different connotations around the globe, in Celtic it means "young warrior", in Hebrew it translates into "rock" and in Welsh it simply states that "God is good." The Greek form of it, Evangelos, means "good messenger." As you can see, there's a common theme behind this name; God and the naturally rooted concept of strength and good-ness.

This may have played a role in choosing a title for the 2007 comedy film, "Evan Almighty," which features Steve Carrell as Evan Baxter, an average Joe who suddenly is chosen by God himself to play Noah in the next great flood. The sequel to "Bruce Almighty," grossed $31.2 million in its opening weekend and interestingly enough did not feature either co-star (Jim Carrey or Jennifer Anniston) from its 2003 original. But there was some consistency as Morgan Freeman reprised his role as God, naturally.

Evan has ranked in the top 100 most popular names in the U.S. consistently since 1980. It continued to rise and plateaued somewhere in the Grunge era where it still lingers amongst the fifty most frequent first names. Other countries where it is highly popular include Canada and Ireland.

Varients of the name include; Euan, Evann, Ev, Eva,Evyn, Ewan, Ewy and Owen. There aren't too many famous Evan's out there but among the notable are Evan G. Galbraith (1928-1/21/08), US Ambassador to France during the Reagen years (1981-1985, who also served as the Secretary of Defense Representative in Europe from 2005-2007. Another unsung hero includes, Evan Frank Lysacek, (6/4/85-present) an American figure skater who was the 2007-08 U.S. national champion and is currently ranked fifth in the world. For those looking for a more macho figure head don't forget Evan Lloyd Tanner, (2/11/71-present) UFC middle-weight fighting champion.

On rare occasions the name has titled a woman, while still maintaining its masculine form, such as the case with actress Evan Rachel Wood (9/7/87-present). Wood appeared in a number of television series in the late 1990's and made her first big screen debut in Little Secrets (2002). Since then she's appeared in Thirteen (2003) and Across the Universe (2007).

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