Alan (given name) 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. The short form of "Alan" is "Al". This name is a short form of numerous other etymologically unrelated names that begin with this syllable.
Alan (given name) 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