Alan

Origin: Old Breton — Origin disputed; possibly linked to a word for noble

Nicknames: Allie, Ally

Boy's name · #191 in the US (2025) · Vintage

Popularity over time

Alan is an heirloom: its strongest era came around 1951, when it ranked #40. It has thinned since but never left the records — about 363,000 boys since 1882, ranked #191 today.

Across the states

See where Alan is more common.

Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 41 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.

Around the world

See how Alan ranks in other countries and regions.

#26 in Ecuador (2025) · #50 in Puerto Rico (2025) · #56 in Poland (2025) · #70 in Mexico (2024) · #77 in Spain (2024) · #206 in Slovenia (2025) · #232 in Ireland (2025) · #274 in Norway (2025) · #335 in Switzerland (2025) · #413 in Austria (2025) · #425 in Belgium (2025) · #434 in France (2025) and 5 more.

Famous Alans

Alan Turing — English computer scientist (1912–1954)
Alan Rickman — British actor and director (1946–2016)
Alan Shearer — English footballer
Alan Arkin — American actor, filmmaker (1934–2023)
Alan García — Peruvian politician (1949–2019)

In stories & tradition

Alan Scott — All-American Comics (comics)
Alan Grant — Jurassic Park (book)
Alan Partridge — I'm Alan Partridge (TV series)

What Alans become

Among 5,707 notable people named Alan:

Sports figures appear 1.39× more often than among typical names — e.g. Alan Shearer, English footballer.

Spellings & nicknames

Together with its spelling variants Allen (#578) and Allan (#1013), Alan would rank around #137 with about 2,600 births last year — the newborns split about 73/19/8 across Alan, Allen, and Allan.

About 630 girls a year are given Allie as their full name and 120 Ally.

Similar names: Allan · Danny · Alex · Calvin · Bryan · Steven

Browse more boy names — popularity, trends and eras for 5,700+ American names, free.

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