Alan
Masculine
Alan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 363,313 boys against 1,076 girls since 1880. See Alan as a girl 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 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Alan alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 277,000 people named Alan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alan most popular?
Alan peaked in 1951, reaching #40 nationally. Today it ranks #191, 151 places below that high. See the whole 1951 chart.
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.
Cultural footprint
Alan Turing (b. 1912) — Broke the Enigma code and founded computer science
Alan Rickman (b. 1946) — Harry Potter's Snape
Alan Shepard (b. 1923) — First American in space — later hit a golf ball on the Moon
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 19559,037 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #40reached in 1951
- Change vs 2022
- −4.5%1,915 in 2025, from 2,006
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Alans among us
people named Alan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 892 born in 2025 was named Alan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Alan
- #191
- Alan on the 2025 chart
- #177
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Alan went to 1,915 boys in 2025, but Allan is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 2,145, which makes it the 177th most-given boys’ name of the year — 14 places above the chart.
- Alan1,915
- Allan223
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 796 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 892 for Alan itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lee climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lee's path sketches the road Alan is walking now.
Alan peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Alan is headed
Alan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Alan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Alan to the vote.
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What they receive
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Alan
Masculine · #191 in the U.S.
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 277,000 people named Alan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Alan?
- Alan is the most-used spelling in US records — 1,915 of the 2,145 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Allan.
- How popular is the name Alan in 2025?
- Alan ranks #191 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,915 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alan?
- About 1 in every 892 US boys born in 2025 was named Alan — 1,915 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alan with classmates?
- Alan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Chase#192 · Callan#190 · Tate#193 · Maxwell#189 · Legend#193 · Rhett#188 · Peter#187 · Alejandro#195
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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