Cann
surname · Latin script
Meaning: (i) Person from Cann, Dorset, meaning ‘deep valley’; or (ii) shortened form of McCann
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈkæn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Cann is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 26K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 27K
- CACanada≈1 in 41K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 338 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 23K (inferred from the name graph)
≈6,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Ghana, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
(i) Person from Cann, Dorset, meaning ‘deep valley’; or (ii) shortened form of McCann.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Cann counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ≈6,000 est. | ≈1 in 232K | — | Cann | 6 |
| US United States | 3,890 | 1 in 86K | 3.9K | Cann | 338 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈2,600 est. | ≈1 in 26K | listed | Cann | 181 |
| GH Ghana | ≈1,300 est. | ≈1 in 23K | — | Cann | 31 |
| FR France | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 59K | 81 | — | 5 |
| AU Australia | ≈930 est. | ≈1 in 27K | — | Cann | 119 |
| CA Canada | ≈930 est. | ≈1 in 41K | — | Cann | 137 |
| IE Ireland | ≈95 est. | ≈1 in 54K | — | Cann | 65 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; the hanks-dictionary-surnames-1988 register; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Cann is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, from OE canne ‘can’; first attested Bartholomew Canne 1327 SRSf
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In English, called from OE catina can, used in a transferred sense of a deep valley. Alternatively, it may be a topographic name from the same word used elsewhere in SW England. Var.: Canner. Var. (of i): Champion. Canning i. English: habitation name from a place in Dim. (of i): Fr.: Championnet.
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In English, called from OE canna can, used in a transferred sense of a deep valley. Alternatively, it may be a topographic name from the same word used elsewhere in SW England. Var.: Canner. Canning 1. English: habitation name from a place in
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
In English, Obsolete spelling of can (“container”).
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In ang, a piece of knowledge
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Tedford Harris Cannb. 1897USAmerican swimmer, former world record-holder, U.S. Navy seaman and officer, Medal of Honor recipient
- Sid Cannb. 1911GBEnglish footballer (1911–1996)
- Maurice Cannb. 1911GBBritish former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer
- Jamie Cannb. 1946GBBritish politician (1946-2001)
- Warren Cannb. 1950CACanadian drummer
- Benjamín Cannb. 1953MXMexican television director and actor
- Elizabeth Cannb. 1979GBEnglish badminton player
- Adrian Cannb. 1980CACanadian soccer player
- Francis Cannb. 1998GHGhanaian professional footballer
- David CannGBBritish actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 21 sources across 13 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 3.9K | #8,479 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 3.7K | #8,142 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 3.5K | #9,033 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 113 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 97 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 94 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 93 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 89 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 87 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 81 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 77 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 72 | — |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Cann mean, and where does it come from?
- (i) Person from Cann, Dorset, meaning ‘deep valley’; or (ii) shortened form of McCann. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- How do you pronounce Cann?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkæn/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Cann have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 6.0 thousand people named Cann in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled cann.
- How common is the name Cann?
- In the United States, the national register counted 3,890 people named Cann in 2010, about 1 in 86 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Cann?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/cannThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Cann”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.