English homophones
Alan/Allen
"Alan" (#3,275 written frequency) beats "Allen" (#3,735) in this 2-word /ˈæl.ən/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈæl.ən/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "Alan" leads at #3,275, with "Allen" trailing at #3,735.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "al" then splits - "Alan" (4 letters) vs "Allen" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across Alan, Allen: aln. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
Alan
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape VCVC
Inventory aln · no private letters vs siblings
Allen
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape VCCVC
Inventory aeln · private e
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "Alan" when you mean: A male given name from the Celtic languages.
- Write "Allen" when you mean: An English and Scottish surname transferred from the given name derived from the given name Alan.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (Alan, Allen). Here's where to go from here.
- "Alan" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #3,275 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: axe · ax. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "Alan, Allen" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.