Save Gender Masculine Usage Greek, Romanian (Rare) Scripts Γιάννης(Greek) Pronounced Pron. YA-nees(Greek) [key·IPA] Meaning & History Alternate transcription of Greek Γιάννης (see Giannis). Notable bearer is a Greek-French Composer: Iannis Xenakis, born in Romania. His Greek name is sometimes transliterated as Ιάννης. As a Romanian name, this can also be a variant of Ianis.