Genesis 46:16 names him a son of Gad (cf Numbers 26:17), and 1 Chronicles 7:38 has Ara, which is probably a diminutive; the Chronicles Ara is from the tribe of Asher.
The spelling of the name, with its repeated Aleph (א) but no intervening sound (even the Masoretic version declines to add pointing to indicate a sound), is not normal Yehudit, and therefore suggests a corruption or elision. Gesenius thinks the corruption is from Ari-El (אריאל), and reckons it to mean "sprung from a hero", but he also offers that it would just as likely be be a variation of Ari-El (אריאל) = "lion of El"; an apparent contradiction which underlines the fineness of the divide between the Biblical heroes and the pre-Biblical gods. The only other Biblical use of the word is in Isaiah 33:7, where Ar'elem (אראלם) is used to mean "their heroes" - this the reason for Gesenius' preferred explanation. There is a character named Ari-El in Ezra 8:16-17.
And no, there is no connection with the Yehudit word for "foreskin", except aurally. Arlah is written with an Ayin, not an Aleph - עָרלָה.
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