Hans.
a diminutive of the male given name Johannes, from German Hans, equivalent to English John
Meaning & usage
a diminutive of the male given name Johannes, from German Hans, equivalent to English John
Hansel, the boy in the fairy tale Hans og Grete (“Hansel and Gretel”)
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from German Hans, a medieval short form of Johannes (“John”), ultimately from Latin Iōhannēs, a variant of Latin Iōannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), from Biblical Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yôḥānān, “Yahweh is gracious”). First attested in the 14th century in Norway. Doublet of Johannes, Johan, Jan, Jens, Jo, John, and Jon. Compare Danish Hans, Swedish Hans, German Hans, Dutch Hans, Icelandic Hans, Faroese Hans, Finnish Hans and Estonian Hans (“male given name”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.