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Updated August 7, 2024

Table of contents

Boy name origins & meanings

  • Gaelic : Handsome

Boy name variations

How Popular Is The Name Allan

Family name origins & meanings

  • Scottish and northern English : variant spelling of Allen. This is the more common spelling of the name in Scotland and northern England; in Scotland it is often found as an English form of the Gaelic name McAllen (see McAllen).
  • One early bearer of this name in North America was William Allan, a British soldier who took his family to the newly founded city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1749. His son John (1746–1805) was a Revolutionary soldier who eventually (1783) founded the settlement of Allan’s Island, Passamaquoddy Bay, ME.

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