Anna
[ˈænə]Meaning
form of Hannah used in the Greek and Latin Old Testament
Background Story
Anna is a form of Hannah used in the Greek and Latin Old Testament, though many later translations, including the English, use the Hannah spelling instead. It appears briefly in the New Testament as the name of a prophetess who recognized Jesus as the Messiah, was popular in the Byzantine Empire from an early date, and became common among Western Christians in the Middle Ages through veneration of Saint Anna, the name traditionally assigned to the mother of the Virgin Mary. In England the Latin form has been used alongside the vernacular forms Ann and Anne since the late Middle Ages, and Anna has been the most common of these spellings in all English-speaking countries since the 1970s. It is also the name of the main character in Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina (1877).
Variations
Ana, Annabelle, Annie
Related Names
Anja
Form of Anya in several languages
Aliz
The Hungarian form of Alice, from the Old German for 'of noble kind'.
Annja
Arik
Diminutive of Ariel or Arieh
Asya
Diminutive of Anastasiya or Aleksandra; Turkish for "Asia (continent)"
Azia
Recorded as a feminine given name in English; not documented as a word with a meaning
Leia
Form of Leah used in the Greek Old Testament, and a Portuguese form
Abby
A diminutive of Abigail
Abbygail
A rare nonstandard spelling of Abigail
Abey
From Abe + -y; Abe is a short form of Abraham, of Hebrew origin