Alan - ?? off the wall or retro and will seem cool?

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discuss

Alan is old and bland and 40 yr old bloke BUT 1 000000 times better than Archie, Alfie, Noah, Stanley, Norman etc

My son has a friend called Alain which is pronounced v similar but Al-an rather than Al-un. It is nicer and less dull a name.

I would live to introduce a baby as Alan! In similar category to Kevin, Paul and Steve. Good solid 70S/80S names!

Alan is just hideous and will take at least another generation before it can return.

I like it :)

Also like Francis (was on my list for DS), David, Paul, John, Anthony etc.

They will rise again, we'll be grandmas to baby Bernards and Pamelas and our kids will have grandchildren called Darren and Louise.

I like it :)

Also like Francis (was on my list for DS), David, Paul, John, Anthony etc.

They will rise again, we'll be grandmas to baby Bernards and Pamelas and our kids will have grandchildren called Darren and Louise.

to me it's one of the granny age names, as my grandad was Allan, b. 1922 (he'd be 91). I quite like it, DS is Alex though.

I also quite like Bernard- but couldn't use it as surname starts with D - and Ian is on the list for DC2...

My dear Grandad. Would like to use for future DS. Middle name probably.

I know an Alyn who is an older man but it just seems nicer than Alan

my dh is Alan. he did not want any of our children to have his name. hth

My grandad was an allan. never met him so no idea what he was like. My favourite ever cousin is allan and i love him like a baby brother - my ds middle name is allan after him. I like it as a first but my aunt would get far too giddy over my using 'her' name not in a bad way just constant showing off yuk.

I also like stuart though and according to MN on occasion that is the most awful name ever.

About five years ago I bumped into an ex student with her baby boy. I asked her his name and she said "Alan". I replied "Adam" thinking I'd misheard her. The baby was actually called Alan. I felt awful because I was shocked to hear my husband's name on a baby.

If you are an achingly cool hipster yiu could probably get away with it. People would assume it's the new wave retro and you're ahead of the curve.

Which is probably true but yiud probably be 20yrs ahead of the curve then 100s of little Alans and Dereks will be turning up. Bit like being a 30 yr old Grace or Ruby now.

how do people feel about it being spelt alun the welsh way?

Alun is much better, oddly.

Alun is good if you say it with a Welsh accent.

Can't guarantee everyone will though.

I can't hear Alan without thinking of this now...

If you like it, use it. It doesn't really matter what other people think.

I like it.

Dull and dated.

Makes me think of Alan-a-dale in Robin Hood as well as Alan Partridge.

I'd not be in a rush to choose it, but it's better than Ptolemy and Edgar.

I know of an Alun but he get called ali he suits it though

The only Alan I've known was a classic charming psychopath with proper delusions.
Therefore you should not name your baby Alan.

(Other than that, it's an ok name, just a bit boring. Alain de Botton seems to do ok, maybe that extra 'i' is worth it.)

Will struggle in any group gathering e.g festivals. We can all thank that creature comfort(??) thing on BBC for that one.

If I'd had a boy then Alan would have been in there somewhere. I really like it. But then, it's my dad's name and he's very cool.

I'm in my 50s and have known loads of Alans and NEVER ONCE has the anagram 'anal' cropped up. You can find something horrible to say about any name if you try really hard.