Short form of Alexander or Venetian form of Giovanni (John), meaning 'defender of the people' or 'God is gracious'.
Zan is a name of multiple converging origins, which gives it an unusual richness for such a compact form. Most directly, it functions as a diminutive of Alexander — the Greek Alexandros, meaning "defender of men" — through the same shortening process that produced Xan, Sasha, and Lex. Alexander the Great's name seeded the world so thoroughly that diminutives of it exist in every major European language family, and Zan represents the English-language strand of that tradition at its most stripped-down.
There is also a Persian origin: Zan (zan) means "woman" in Farsi, and the name carries dignity in Iranian culture independent of its Greek connections. In the theatrical history of Europe, the word zanni (from the Venetian form of Giovanni) gave its name to the stock servant-clown characters of the Italian Commedia dell'arte tradition, where Zan or Zanni was the archetype of the clever, improvisational, often chaotic underdog who outmaneuvered his social superiors through wit rather than station. From zanni comes the English word zany — a history that gives the name an unexpected comic pedigree alongside its more stately classical roots.
As a standalone given name in contemporary usage, Zan appeals to parents who favor short, gender-flexible names with cross-cultural resonance. It has a crisp modern sound while carrying ancient weight — one syllable that manages to gesture simultaneously toward classical antiquity, Persian culture, and the subversive theatrical tradition. In the DC Comics universe, Zan and Jayna were the Wonder Twins, giving the name a subtle science fiction flavor for a generation of readers, while in literary fiction it has appeared as both a masculine and feminine choice with striking frequency.