Alan is a name of Scottish origin and it means "fair or handsome chief". It has been used as a personal name since the Middle Ages. The name was popularized by Sir Alan of the Bells, a famous Scottish knight who fought in the Wars of Independence against England in the late 13th century.
The name Alan is also associated with several notable figures throughout history, such as Alan of Dale, a bard who appeared in several medieval English texts, and Alan Turing, the British mathematician and computer scientist who broke the German Enigma code during World War II.
The name Alan has been popular among parents in the United States for over a century, as evidenced by these statistics showing the number of births each year from 1882 to 2023.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the number of babies named Alan varied quite a bit. Between 1882 and 1914, there were fewer than 50 births per year on average. However, this changed dramatically in the following years, with over 300 births each year from 1917 onwards.
The name Alan reached its peak popularity during the baby boom era of the mid-20th century. In 1960 alone, there were over 8,700 babies named Alan! This trend continued into the 1970s and early 1980s, with around 3,000 births per year.
However, like many traditional names, Alan's popularity began to decline in the late 20th century. Between 1995 and 2023, there were fewer than 2,500 babies named Alan each year, except for a spike of over 3,000 births in 2003.
Despite this recent decline, Alan remains a classic and timeless name. With over 359,194 babies named Alan born in the United States since 1882, it's safe to say that this name has stood the test of time!