Ask a Dutch person for a typically Dutch boy name and there is a good chance you hear Daan. It is short, strong and has one of the most important Dutch sounds in it: the long aa. It also opens the door to a very Dutch idea, the roepnaam.
How do you pronounce Daan?
Say DAHN. The Dutch aa is long and open, like the a in "father", said at the front of your mouth. Compare it with the short a in dan (then): Daan and dan are different words, and the only difference is the length of the vowel. Try: Daan komt dan, Daan comes then.
What does Daan mean?
According to the Meertens Instituut, which keeps the Dutch first name database, Daan is a form of Daniël, a Hebrew name that means "my judge is God", after the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament. The name has a long history in the Low Countries: the Meertens records show a Daen in Dordrecht as early as 1399.
How popular is Daan?
Daan is not in the 2025 top 10 of new babies, where international names like Noah, Liam and James took over, but it is one of the names you meet most among Dutch men and boys today. That is exactly why it feels so typically Dutch.
Make it cute: Daantje
Dutch people love the diminutive, the small and sweet form of a word. It works on names too: Daan becomes Daantje. A name that ends in a long vowel plus l, n or r gets -tje, just like de deur (door) becomes het deurtje. Notice the new word is always het: every diminutive is a het-word.
Use Daan in a Dutch sentence
| Dutch | English |
|---|---|
| Daan komt dan. | Daan comes then. |
| Hij heet officieel Daniël, maar zijn roepnaam is Daan. | His official name is Daniël, but he goes by Daan. |
| Daan werkt in Rotterdam. | Daan works in Rotterdam. |
| Is Daan er ook? | Is Daan there too? |
Bonus: what is a roepnaam?
Many Dutch people have an official name on their passport and a roepnaam, literally a "call name", that everyone actually uses. A boy registered as Daniël Johannes can go through life as Daan. On Dutch forms you will often see a separate field: roepnaam. Now you know what to write there.
See where Daan sits among the 10 most popular Dutch boy names, and read what common Dutch last names mean.
Want to hear these names out loud and use them in real sentences? Practise with our Dutch WhatsApp Buddy, or take the free Dutch level test to see where you stand.