ALÁNO.  Spanish name, of Old French origin, from alan, allan, meaning "hunting dog." (Prænomina, Charnock, 1882).  The name appears in the Spanish romance Tirante el Blanco.

    Tirante the White, hero of a Spanish romance Tirante el Blanco,—a real or pretended translation from an unidentified English original,—first printed in 1490, but probably composed a century earlier.  Tirante's father was lord of the marches of Tirranie, a French province lying opposite the coast of England.  He crosses the channel, performs astounding feats of arms in English tournaments; repeats his exploits in deadlier earnest at the siege of Rhodes, and assists the Emperor of Constantinople in repelling the invasion of a Moorish soldan and a Grand Turk.  He dies on the eve of his marriage to Carmesina.  This is one of the three books preserved in the scrutiny of Don Qixote's library.
    "Let me see that book," said the curé; "we shall find in it a fund of amusement.  Here we shall find that famous knight don Kyrie Elyson of Montalban, and Thomas his brother, with the knight Fonseca, the battle which Detriante fought with Alano, the strategems of the Widow Tranquil, the amour of the empress with her squire, and the witticisms of lady Brillianta.  This is one of the most amusing books ever written."—Cervantes: Don Quixote, I, i. 6 (1605). (Heroes and Heroines of Fiction, Walsh, 1914)