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Would you expect a German to be called Alan? Or would it be Alain?

Silly question, but quite important. One day I may even be able to tell you why I ask!

From the two, Alan is the more likely in my opinion. To qualify that I lived and worked in Germany for over three years when I was in my early 20's and I also speak a little Deutsche.

Out of the two, I would vote for Alan. Alain sounds more french.
Anyway, Alan is no. 696 on the ”Deutche Vornamen Hitliste“ (The German First Name List) while Alain doesn't make the list.

Hans Gruber

I'd go with alan.But surely there would be better german names out there (even ones that sound normalish) like Karl. Or for a different tack Andreas. or Wolfgang (all names from my family (german side)). I just want to feel special. go with Alan

This is about a real person - not a trick or routine or anything like that. It's personal research into my family history.

Hi,

non of them is a German name.
Both are names that were imported from any country.

So you don't have to worry about which one is "more German" - because non of them is.

That said I have to mention that Germans use names from other languages as well to name their kids.
You find German girls named "Shirley"or "Liz" as well as boys called "Steve" or "Leroy".

As for your alternatives I guess that "Alain" is more common in Germany than "Alan".
Maybe this results from a "Alain Delon" reminiscence of our parents, ...
But both names are very rare for Germans.

Using the first letters "Al..." we have names like ...
... Albert, Albrecht, Alexander (Alex), Alfred (Alf), Alfons, Aluis, Alwin, ...
But most of them are pretty old-fashioned.

Best
Th.

Thanks Thomas. The full name I'm looking into is Alan Wilhelm Meyers - which may suggest an Anglo-German background?

sounds like a german/american hybrid...WW2?

If your tracking family history you will find some very different spellings for the same names. Even common names like Johnson will be spelt in all manner of ways. My Dads been doing it since retiring. Several years on we're up to 17 generations and a tree of 1677 people going back into the 1500s. He keeps saying that he has finished it, but then another clue comes along and he carries on.

With tracking down a name like Alan Wilhelm Meyers I imagine you'd need to try different spellings of all three parts of the name unfortunately. The Meyers I can imagine being recorded as Myers if it's a German name.

Jobasha wrote:With tracking down a name like Alan Wilhelm Meyers I imagine you'd need to try different spellings of all three parts of the name unfortunately. The Meyers I can imagine being recorded as Myers if it's a German name.

You find "Wilhelm" in Germany as well as in Austria or Suisse (older generation).

"Myers" is definitively not German and even "Meyers" is not common.
"Meyer" (without an "s" at the end) is a name you find pretty often, as well well as "Meier", "Maier" or other varitions.

So over all "Alan Wilhelm Meyers" suggests an "Anglo-..." background with connections to Germany or Austria - even Suisse is possible.

Cheers
Th.

Don't know if this helps. But growing up in a french Canadian province, Alain =french, Alan= English. And depending on where you were in the province, one spelling or the other could get you beaten up. Sad but true.