From Scottish Gaelic 'blaan' meaning yellow or golden; borne by the 6th-century Saint Blane.
Blane is a name of Scottish and Irish Gaelic origin, most directly associated with Saint Blane of Bute, a sixth-century monk who studied under Saint Comgall in Ireland before returning to Scotland to establish a monastery on the Isle of Bute. The ruins of his chapel, Kilblane, still stand there. The name derives from the Gaelic bláán, meaning 'yellow' or 'fair,' a color-descriptor that likely referred to hair or complexion in the manner common to early medieval naming.
In this it shares its semantic territory with names like Bláithín ('little flower') and the broader Celtic tradition of nature-based appellations. As a given name, Blane — along with its variant spelling Blaine — has a distinctly North American history, popularized in part by James G. Blaine, the nineteenth-century American politician who was the Republican presidential nominee in 1884 and one of the most prominent figures of the Gilded Age.
The name acquired a kind of frontier-era Americanness that distinguished it from its Celtic origins. In popular culture, Blane appeared in the 1986 film Pretty in Pink as the name of Andrew McCarthy's character, lending it a certain 1980s romantic-preppy association that a generation of viewers absorbed. Today Blane occupies an interesting niche: it is recognizable but genuinely uncommon, old enough to have historical weight but not so antique as to feel fusty. The single-syllable crispness gives it strength, and its Celtic roots provide an appealing backstory for families with Scottish or Irish heritage who want something less common than Ian or Finn.