Hansen or Hanssen is a Scandinavian patronymic surname, meaning son of Hans. As of 2008, it is the third most common surname in Denmark, shared by 4.3% of the population. As of 2000, Hansen is the single most common surname in Norway, not counting spelling variations such as Hanssen, which are also quite common. In the Faroe Islands Hansen is the second most common surname, while in the North German federal states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg Hansen is the third and fifth most common surname, respectively. In Sweden the parallel form is Hansson. The frequent occurrences of Hansen as a surname outside Denmark, Norway and Schleswig-Holstein is due to danishimmigration, though Nordic immigrants to English-speaking countries often anglicised their names to Hanson in order to accommodate English orthographic rules.

Geographical distribution

As of 2014, 33.5% of all known bearers of the surname Hansen were residents of Denmark (frequency 1:28), 31.6% of the United States (1:1,933), 10.5% of Norway (1:83), 10.2% of Germany (1:1,330), 2.3% of Canada (1:2,658), 2.3% of Australia (1:1,773), 1.3% of Sweden (1:1,325) and 1.2% of South Africa (1:7,460). In Denmark, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:28) in the following regions: In Norway, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:83) in the following regions:

Notable people

Notable people with the surname include:

Arts and entertainment

Politics

Science

Sport

Other people