Alanna
Meaning
feminine form of Alan; meaning disputed
The story
Alanna is the feminine of Alan dressed in a double n, and it inherits Alan's honest mystery: the root is either Brythonic for little rock or the name of the Alans, horsemen who rode into Europe sixteen centuries ago; nobody is certain. Baby-name sites like to add that it means beautiful in Irish; the scholarship declines to follow them there. What is certain is the American record: about 1,400 in the 1970s, 5,000 in the 1990s, cresting at 6,200 in the 2000s, and a long steady plateau since, 5,800 in the 2010s and 4,500 already this decade, essentially all girls. Alana, the single-n sister, leads the couple at about 68,300 to 27,000, and Lana, at 57,400, is the clip both share. Tamora Pierce gave the name its patron saint: Alanna of Trebond, the girl who became a knight.
Alanna's name family
One shared root links 4 names across 2 languages.
Shared root: a Breton name the Normans carried to England, of debated sense; "little rock" and "handsome" are both only traditional guesses
The family
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Alanna peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
7,311 people · the #2,110 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 27,778 · median age 10
Among people named Alanna living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 1,497 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Alanna
Most people given the name Alanna in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Alanna deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Alanna truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Alanna fits with your family’s names and surname.
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