Alan is generally a boy’s name, and it can have either one or two l’s in the middle. Generally, the name came from Old German origins that infiltrated the English language in the seventh century. It comes through the Old German word for precious.
“Ailin” is a Gaelic term that signifies a little pebble. The Bretons who followed William the Conqueror into battle spoke this language and they probably transferred it into English. A famous Breton was named Allen, in fact, and he probably popularized the name by his brave actions that led him to being crowned the Earl of Brittany.
Generally in most of Europe, people only had one name at the start of the beginning of recorded history. But as people began to travel and trade, a surname was needed. It was sometimes exactly the name of one’s clan, but it could also be the trade that one’s family worked in. In this way, James Farmer came from a family of farmers and Bob Shepherd is probably the descendant as someone who herded sheep.
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