Alayna

It appears as if the name Alayna is a made-up spelling invented at the end of the 20th century in the United States. There are a few probable sources for the name Alayna. First, it could either be a feminized version of the male name Alan (from Gaelic roots meaning either ‘rock’ or ‘beautiful’) or as a more elaborate rendering of Alana (thought to come from an old Gaelic term of endearment “a leanbh” which means ‘O child’) This Gaelic word is also often translated to ‘darling’ to underscore the warmth of the expression. Lastly, Alayna could be a variant developed from the names Elaine and Ellen, both of which are anglicized forms of the Greek name Helen (meaning ‘ray, sunbeam’). The most likely origins of Alayna come from the practice of free naming creations long established by American parents, particularly when selecting names for their little girls. Strategies include fanciful respellings, elaborations of existing names, phonetically respelled forms, and outright invention of a brand new name. It appears that Alayna took the name Elaina (from Elaine), changed it to the more popular “ah” prefix (Alaina) and then phonetically respelled it to Alayna. There you have it.