girl's name
Alannah
uh-LAN-uh
- Origin Irish
- Gender Girl
- Letters 7
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 14,397
Ireland
#104
2025 births
Alannah is a girl's name from the Irish term of endearment a leanbh, meaning "O child," so it began as something said to a baby rather than something anyone was called. It ranks 104th in Ireland and is stable.
- Alannah is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in 2015, when 370 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 26,954 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1948.
Alannah over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1940s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 6 |
| 1980s | 93 |
| 1990s | 1,177 |
| 2000s | 2,095 |
| 2010s | 3,005 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,016 |
What Alannah means
Alannah means O child, or my child. It comes from the Irish vocative a leanbh — a form of address, not a noun — which makes it one of very few names built from a way of speaking to someone.
Where Alannah comes from
Alannah descends from the Irish a leanbh, meaning O child, where a is the vocative particle and leanbh is a child. Anglo-Irish writers rendered the phrase as alannah in dialog through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, exactly as they rendered a stór as astore and a chuisle as acushla — terms of endearment, printed as words, which English readers gradually took for names. Alannah is therefore not a name that acquired a meaning but a phrase that acquired name status. It is frequently presented as a feminine of Alan, which is a separate Breton name of uncertain derivation, or as an Arabic or Hawaiian name; neither claim holds. Alana and Alanna are usually the Alan-derived forms, which is why the spellings sit in different traditions despite sounding alike.
Alannah in use
Alannah ranks 104th in Ireland with 46 births in 2025 and is stable in our data with a peak in 2015. Our records carry it from 1948. It reaches 718th in England and Wales and 1,683rd in the United States, so it has traveled further than most names of Irish-phrase origin. Alana and Alanna appear separately in every register, and the three spellings together stand well above any one of them.
How popular is Alannah?
In 2025, Alannah was given to 123 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Alannah is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Alannah
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Alannah also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Alannah over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Alannah in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Polish
- Alana
Sibling names for Alannah
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Alannah — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Alannah
What does the name Alannah mean?
It means "O child," from the Irish a leanbh — a form of address rather than a noun.
Is Alannah a feminine of Alan?
Alana and Alanna usually are. Alannah comes from the Irish endearment instead, though the spellings are used interchangeably.
Are there other names from Irish endearments?
Yes — acushla from a chuisle and astore from a stór were printed the same way in Anglo-Irish writing.
How popular is Alannah?
104th in Ireland.
Is Alannah a girl's or a boy's name?
Alannah is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
Is Alannah a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Alannah currently ranks #104 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.