Allan
Masculine
Allan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 96,458 boys against 253 girls since 1880.
Allan is the Scottish-leaning spelling of a name that Breton settlers carried into Britain after the Norman conquest, and it has stayed in continuous English-language use ever since. Two flat syllables, no silent letters, nothing to explain at the door — and the town of Bridge of Allan in Scotland keeps the same shape on the map. It sits among the older generations in strength now, familiar to almost everyone without being a name a child is likely to share.
How old is the name Allan?
Allan was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Allan alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 59,000 people named Allan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Allan most popular?
Allan peaked in 1940, reaching #115 nationally. Today it ranks #1012, 897 places below that high. See the whole 1940 chart.
Allan appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Alan to Allan
The story of Allan
The name arrived in England with Breton followers of William the Conqueror in the eleventh century — Alan Rufus, lord of Richmond, was one of the great Breton landholders of that generation — and it spread quickly through England and then Scotland, where it took root deeply enough to become a common surname and a place name. From the medieval period onward it existed in several spellings at once, and English speakers eventually settled into three of them: Alan, Allen and Allan. Allan became especially associated with Scotland, and traveled with Scottish and Irish emigration to North America and Australasia, which is how it reached American records in the first place.
Meaningscholars disagree
most often read as 'little rock' or 'handsome, noble'
Two serious readings compete. One traces the name to Breton and Gaelic roots for rock or stone (Breton ail, Gaelic ail), giving 'little rock'. Another connects it to a Celtic element for handsome or noble. A third line links the name to the Alans, an Iranian nomadic people whose name reached western Europe in late antiquity. None of the three has won the argument.
How the name formed
- Alan
- Alain
- Allan
Related forms: Alan · Allen · Alain · Alun · Ailean · Alano
Pronouncing Allan
AL-an
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with 'gallon'. The double L changes nothing about the sound — Alan, Allen and Allan are all said the same way in American English.
Nicknames for Allan
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19482,063 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #115reached in 1940
- Change vs 2022
- −25.9%223 in 2025, from 301
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.
Allan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alan in English — spelling variant
- Allen in English — spelling variant
- Alain in French — same name
- Alun in Welsh — related form
- Ailean in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Alano in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Allans among us
people named Allan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 7,660 born in 2025 was named Allan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Allan
- #1012
- Allan on the 2025 chart
- #177
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Allan went to 223 boys in 2025, but Alan 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 — 835 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 7,660 for Allan 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 Junior test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Allan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Junior climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Junior's path sketches the road Allan is walking now.
Allan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Allan is headed
Allan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Allan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Allan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Phonetically transparent: anyone who hears it can say it, and anyone who reads it can pronounce it, in English and in most other languages.
- Nearly a thousand years of unbroken use in English, so it has never needed a revival and has never sounded invented.
- Travels intact — Alain in French, Alun in Welsh, Ailean in Gaelic, Alano in Italian all point back to the same name.
- Al is a short form so well established it functions as a name on its own, which gives a boy a ready alternative without any effort.
- Three spellings share the pronunciation — Alan, Allen and Allan — so he will spend his life spelling it out. Nothing about that is hard, but it is constant.
- The name sits most heavily with older generations in the US, so it may read as a grandfather's name to some ears — though that is often exactly the appeal, and it is well past the awkward stage of being merely dated.
- Al, the natural short form, is shared with Albert, Alfred and Alexander, so it identifies him rather loosely outside the family.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Allan
Masculine · #1012 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Allans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 59,000 people named Allan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Allan?
- Allan is one of 2 recorded spellings. Alan is the more common one — 1,915 births in 2025 against 223 for Allan.
- How popular is the name Allan in 2025?
- Allan ranks #1012 among US boy names in 2025, with 223 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Allan?
- About 1 in every 7,660 US boys born in 2025 was named Allan — 223 in all.
- Will my child share the name Allan with classmates?
- Allan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Allan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alfonso#1012 · Grey#1014 · Joziah#1015 · Kace#1015 · Zayan#1015 · Aden#1008 · Watson#1008 · Rayyan#1008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Allan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Allan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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