Proper noun

1. "son of Alan/Alexander/Alice".
2. transferred from the surname; mostly of persons born before 1950.
3. taken into general use in the 1940s; usually interpreted as a spelling variant of Alison.

Quotations

• 1956 Grace Metalious: Peyton Place, UPNE, 1999, ISBN 1555534007, Book One, Chapter 4,

  Allison MacKenzie's father, for whom the child had been named, died when she was three years old.

• 1994 Sharyn McCrumb, She Walks These Hills, Scribner's , ISBN 0684195569, page 81:

  "Allison?" Surely that was a girl's name.

  "It's after Davey Allison, the race car driver. He got killed right before the baby was born. Tracy and me wanted to honor his memory." It was a precise little speech. She must have explained the name many times.