Allan

Allan grew from Celtic soil. The name reached England with Breton lords who followed William the Conqueror in 1066, and one of them, Alan Rufus, became among the richest men in medieval England. Scholars trace its sense to "handsome" or to "harmony". The older meaning stays uncertain.

The double-l spelling became an English signature, favoured in Scotland and the northern counties before it settled as a given name in its own right. It travelled well. Edgar Allan Poe carried it as a middle name, taken from the Richmond merchant John Allan who raised him.

In Poland the sense lands as piękny, harmonijny, a promise of good looks and an even temper. A boy called Allan on a school register still reads as slightly foreign, English in flavour, and that is part of its appeal. The Celtic origin stays.