Allanah

Meaning & origin

Allanah is a modern respelling of the more established Alana, first recorded in the U.S. in 1990. It reached its peak popularity in 2006, when it ranked highest, but has since declined. As of the latest data year, 2025, the name sits at rank 11,932 with a low frequency of 1 in every 229,610 births. The name is part of a broader trend for phonetic and vowel-rich variants of traditional names, but it has never cracked the top 5,000 and remains an uncommon choice. The trajectory has been falling steadily since 2007, reflecting a shift away from this particular spelling. Despite the lack of top-state records, the name's sound aligns with the broader popularity of Irish- and Hawaiian-inflected names in English-speaking countries.

Allanah is a modern spelling variant of Alana, a name derived from the Irish Ailbhe (meaning 'noble' or 'bright') or the Hawaiian Alana (meaning 'awakening' or 'harmony'). However, it is more likely a fashionable respelling of Alana or a feminine form of Alan, which is of debated origin, possibly from an Old Breton word for 'little rock' or the Irish 'ailin' (meaning 'little rock'). The name gained modest use in the United States starting in the 1990s.