Alan (given name)
Alan is a masculine given name in the English language. Etymology and early history. "Alan" is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is believed by scholars to have been brought to England by people from Brittany, in the 11th century; later the name spread north into Scotland and west into Ireland. In Ireland and Scotland there are Gaelic forms of the name which may, or may not, be etymologically related to the name introduced by the Bretons. In Breton, "alan" is a colloquial term for a fox and may originally have meant "deer , making it cognate with Old Welsh alan" (cf. "Canu Aneirin", B2.28, line 1125: ""gnaut i-lluru alan buan bithei"", "it was usual for him to be fleet like a deer"), Modern Welsh "elain" (plural "alanedd") "young deer" (and the plant name "alan" "coltsfoot, elecampane"), coming from a Brittonic root "*alan-" or "*elan" (also attested in Celtiberian in personal names such as "Elanus", "Elaesus", and "Ela"), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European "*(H)el-Hn-" "deer, hind" (perhaps denoting an animal - generally cervids - with red or brown fur). Another explanation of the name is that the modern English "Alan", and French "Alain , are derived from the name of the Alans. The Alans were an Iranian people who lived north of the Caucasus Mountains in what is today Russia, and who were known to Classical writers in the 1st century BC. According to historian Bernard Bachrach, the Alans settled in parts of what is today France, including Brittany, in the Early Middle Ages. Bachrach stated that the use of forms of the name in given names, surnames, and place names, is evidence of the continued influence of the Alans on the Gaulish, Breton and Frankish peoples. The Breton name Alan" can not be  a direct loan from the ethnic name of the Alans (rendered as "Alānī" or "Halānī" in Latin, from Scytho-Sarmatian "*Al[l]ān-", derived from Old Iranian "*aryāna", "noble people") because the long vowel in the second syllable would produce Old Breton "-o-", Middle Breton "-eu-" and Modern Breton "-e-" and not the attested spelling with an "-a-". In Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland, Alan may also be an Anglicization of an Irish word (with diminutive suffix) meaning "rock". For example, the modern Irish "ailín" means "little rock". Similarly, according to Patrick Woulfe, the Irish name "Ailín" is derived from diminutive "ail , which means noble", "rock". Woulfe stated that this name is a pet form of some other name beginning with the first element "Ail-". Forms of the Gaelic name appear in early British records; the Latin form "Ailenus" was recorded by Adomnán (died 704). Another similar-looking word in Irish is "álainn" and Scottish Gaelic "àlainn", which means "beautiful". Variations of the name. There are numerous variations of the name in English. The variants "Allan" and "Allen" are generally considered to be derived from the surnames "Allan" and "Allen". The form Allan is used mainly in Scotland and North America. In  England, the given names "Allan" and "Allen" are considerably less popular than "Alan". However, in America all three are generally about the same in popularity. "Alun" is an old masculine given name in the Welsh language; although it is not directly related to "Alan" (it is derived from Proto-Celtic "*alouno-" meaning either "nourishing" or "wandering"), today it is generally used as a variant form of the English name. An earlier bearer of this name is Alun of Dyfed, a character in the "Mabinogion". The name became popular in modern times when it was adopted as a bardic name by  John Blackwell, a 19th-century Welsh poet. Short forms. The short form of "Alan" is "Al". This name is a short form of numerous other etymologically unrelated names that begin with this syllable. Note also the Cornish hypocoristic form "Talan". Feminine forms. There are numerous feminine forms of "Alan". The form "Alana" is a Latinate feminisation of the name. Variant of "Alana" include: "Alanah", "Alanna", "Alannah", and "Allana". Another feminine form is "Alaina", derived from the French "Alain"; a variant of this feminine name is "Alayna". A variant form of Alaina is "Alaine", although it can also be a variant  form of the etymologically unrelated "Elaine". Popularity and use. The name was brought to England by Bretons who took part in the Norman Invasion in the mid-11th century. Forms of the name were in use much earlier in what is today Brittany, France. An early figure who bore the name was St Alan, a 5th-century bishop of Quimper. This saint became a cult figure in the Brittany during the Middle Ages. Another early bearer of the name was St Alan, a 6th-century Cornish saint, who has a church dedicated to his memory in Cornwall (for example see St  Allen, a civil parish in Cornwall named after this saint). Today the use of the given name (and its variants) is due to its popularity among the Bretons who imported the name to England, to Cornwall, and later to Ireland. The Bretons formed a significant part of William, Duke of Normandy's army at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Later many Bretons were granted lands throughout William's freshly conquered kingdom. The most notable Breton Alan, Earl of Richmond, a cadet of the ducal house of Brittany, who was awarded with a large swath of lands in England - specifically  lands in what is today Lincolnshire and East Anglia. The Breton character in many English counties can be traced through Breton personal names still in use in the 12th centuries. The name ranked 8th in popularity in Lincolnshire in the 12th century, where it was about even with "Simon" and more numerous than "Henry". Early occurrences of the name in British records include: "Alanus" in 1066 (in the "Domesday Book"); and "Alain" in 1183. The name became popular in Scotland in part through the Stewarts. This family descends from Alan fitz Flaad, an Anglo-Breton knight, who possessed lands in  what is modern day Shropshire, England.