Alan
Feminine
Alan is given to boys far more often — 363,313 boys against 1,076 girls since 1880. See Alan as a boy name
Alan came into England with the Bretons rather than the Normans, and it is one of the very few names from that source that took root. Nobody has ever established what it means. It has been carried by the richest man in English history and by the man who worked out what a computer is, and it remains, after nine hundred years, entirely unexplained.
How old is the name Alan?
Alan first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Alan alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 900 people named Alan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alan most popular?
Alan peaked in 1962, reaching #2264 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Breton name of unrecovered meaning to Alan
The story of Alan
Alan Turing wrote a paper in the 1930s about an imaginary machine — a tape, a reading head, a table of rules — in order to settle an abstract question about mathematical proof. The machine was never meant to be built. It turned out to describe, exactly, what every computer since has been doing, and the paper is the reason the word computer stopped meaning a person who does arithmetic. He then spent the war breaking a cipher that was supposed to be unbreakable, was prosecuted for being homosexual once it was over, and died at forty-one. The apology from the British government arrived fifty-five years later.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Every proposed origin has a problem. A Breton word for a rock, a Celtic one for a deer, a tribal name from the steppe, an Irish word about harmony — all have been argued and none can be shown. What is certain is the route: Breton followers of the Conqueror brought the name into England in the eleventh century, and it spread from their estates in the north. That is unusual in itself. Almost every other common English name arrived from Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Germanic sources, and this one came in sideways.
How the name formed
- a Breton name of unrecovered meaning
- brought to England after the Conquest
- a Breton follower of the Conqueror builds the largest estate in England
- steady English and Scottish use for eight centuries
- an American peak in the middle of the last century
Related forms: Alain · Alan · Ailean · Allen
Pronouncing Alan
AL-un
Two syllables, stress at the front, first vowel as in pal. Scottish and Irish speakers often give the second syllable more weight than English ones do.
Nicknames for Alan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1921
- Most girls named
- 196228 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2264reached in 1962
- Change vs 2016
- 0.0%5 in 2018, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Alan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alain in French — same name
- Alan in Breton — same name
- Ailean in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Allen in English — spelling variant
Alans among us
people named Alan are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Alan sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It has been in continuous use for nine hundred years without ever becoming a costume.
- Two letters, one syllable and no possible mispronunciation once the spelling is settled.
- It carries serious namesakes in mathematics, in acting and in spaceflight, and none of them owns it.
- Allen and Allan are both common and the spelling will need saying every time.
- It is a name of the middle of the last century in America and reads as a father's or a grandfather's.
- There is no meaning to give a child, and the ones offered in name books are guesses.
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What they receive
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Alan
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Alans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Alan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alan in 2025?
- Alan is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Alan with classmates?
- Alan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anna#107 · Ashley#164 · Amanda#493 · Amy#257 · Angela#408 · Alice#65 · Ann#1076 · Andrea#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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