Ailany

Ailany is a modern respelling of Alani, a name that came into use in the United States in the late twentieth century. Name dictionaries do not agree on a single source. One common explanation traces Alani to the Hawaiian word ʻalani, “orange.” Another treats it as a variant of Alana, the feminine form of Alan, a name of disputed origin that is often connected with the Alans, a people of antiquity. Because the name is recent and its etymology is unsettled, Ailany itself carries no fixed meaning beyond the sense of its parent form.

It is pronounced eye-LAH-nee, with the stress on the middle syllable, in both Spanish and American English.

The name has few historical or literary associations. The closest well-known use of the related form Alani is as the name of the ancient Alans, and as a personal name it belongs to a small number of contemporary figures rather than to any widely recognized namesake.

In the United States, Ailany was rare at the start of the century, given to just 5 babies in 2000 and to roughly 30 a year through the 2010s. It then rose sharply, reaching 2,606 babies and rank 101 in 2024 and 7,136 babies at rank 14 in 2025, its highest point.