Origin of Name: Scottish
A Boernician family in ancient Scottland was the first to use
the name Blain.
It is a name for the Gaelic personal name Bláán which
means yellow.
It was also the name of an early Celtic saint.
First found in Ayshire where they were seated from very
ancient times,
some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke
William at Hastings in 1066 AD.
Motto:
Peace is obtained by war.
Saint Blain was a Bishop and Confessor in Scotland, born on the island of Bute, date unknown; died 590. His feast is kept on 10 August. He was a nephew of St. Cathan, and was educated in Ireland under Sts. Comgall and Kenneth; he became a monk, went to Scotland, and eventually was bishop among the Picts. Several miracles are related of him, among them the restoration of a dead boy to life.
Ruins of St Blane's Church
The Aberdeen Breviary gives these and other details of the saint's life, which are rejected however, by the Bollandists. There can be no doubt that devotion to St. Blane was, from early times, popular in Scotland. His monastery became the site of the Cathedral of Dunblane. There was a church of St. Blane in Dumfries and another at Kilblane. His name is recorded on the Scottish landscape at Strathblane in the central lowlands from Loch Lomond to Dunblane. The year of the saint's death is variously given as 446, 590, and 1000: 446 (Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints) is evidently incorrect; the date 1000, found in Adam King, Kalendar of Scottish Saints (Paris, 1588), in Dempster, Menologium Scotorum (Bonn, 1622), and in the "Acta SS.", seems to have crept in by confusing St. Kenneth, whose disciple Blane was, with Kenneth the King of Scotland about 1000. The highest authorities say the saint died 590. The ruins of his church at Kingarth, Bute, where his remains were buried, are still standing and form an object of great interest to antiquarians; the bell of his monastery is preserved at Dunblane.
Dunblane (Fort Blane), Kilblane (Holy Mountain Blane) and Strathblane (Valley Blane) were all named after St Blane.
Definition: Blain |
Blain
|
|
Date "blain" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. |
| "Blain" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 92.86% of the time. "Blain" is used about 14 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words |
Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 92.86% | 13 | 97,576 |
| Noun (proper) | 7.14% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 14 | N/A |
| The following table summarizes the usage of "blain" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons |
Rank in USA |
| Blain | Last name | 2,000 | 6,241 |