Alan
A male given name from the Celtic languages.
Proper noun
- A male given name from the Celtic languages.
- He grabbed at Alan by his Adam's apple, And Alan grabbed him back in furious grapple And clenched his fist and bashed him on the nose. - 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Reeve's Tale”, in Nevill Coghill, transl., The...
- I could pose as an artist all right; so I took the studio. Also the name of Alan Beverley. My own is Bill Bates. I had often wondered what it would feel like to be called by some name like Alan Beverley or Cyril...
- A surname.
Origin
From Old Breton Alan, name of early Breton saints, of disputed origin and meaning; brought to England by Normans. It may have been the name of a Celtic deity, the brother of Bran, Welsh Alawn, Alun. As an early Irish name, perhaps connected with ail (“noble”). Compare French Alain.
Forms
Derived
Proper noun Entry 2
- A male given name from Hebrew, variant of Elon.
Forms
Noun
- A member of a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.
Origin
From Latin Alānī, from Ancient Greek Ἀλανοί (Alanoí), from Proto-Sarmatian *Allān.