The Scottish and Northern English surname Allan is derived from a Celtic personal name of great antiquity and obscurity. Various suggestions have been put forward regarding its origin; the most plausible is that it originally meant ‘little rock’. The name is first recorded in Scotland in the 14th Century and the earliest record in the New World is in 1622 when John Allan arrived in Virginia. Today there are approximately 11,000 bearers of the name Allan living in the United States.