BabyNameScore

Name profile

Anna

feminine

90First-name usabilityHighly workable
Evidence coverageHigh

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Latin/Greek form of the Hebrew name Hannah (Ḥannāh), used for this figure in the Greek and Latin Old Testament and carried into the New Testament (Anna the Prophetess).

Why it works

  • English speakers will almost certainly pronounce it correctly on the first try
  • spelling is short and predictable — rarely needs repeating

What to know

pronunciation varies somewhat by language — see "How it travels" for the specifics

Popularity

Familiar — #107 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Meaning and origin

Anna means "Grace" or "favor," from the Hebrew verb ḥanan ("to be gracious/show favor") that underlies Hannah.

Anna was a prominent name in the Byzantine Empire from an early date and became common among Western Christians in the Middle Ages through veneration of Saint Anna (Saint Anne in English), traditionally held to be the mother of the Virgin Mary.

Documented origin: Latin/Greek form of the Hebrew name Hannah (Ḥannāh), used for this figure in the Greek and Latin Old Testament and carried into the New Testament (Anna the Prophetess).

Documented as a variant or related form of another name.

How it travels

English and Turkish are shown by default; German is included when it adds a meaningfully different reading.

EnglishAN-uhresearched pronunciation
TurkishEnglish tends to reduce unstressed vowels; Turkish pronounces vowels at full value, so the ending may sound crisper to Turkish speakers than to English speakers.deterministic phonetic analysis
GermanEnglish tends to reduce unstressed vowels; German pronounces vowels at full value, so the ending may sound crisper to German speakers than to English speakers.deterministic phonetic analysis

Spelling stability: high — based on letter-pattern analysis, not a documented linguistic fact.

Also documented

Italian: AH-nah (Italian, Polish, Icelandic)

German: AH-na (German, Swedish, Danish)

Popularity without panic

Familiar — #107 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Familiar enough to feel established, distinctive enough to stand out.

Full-name check

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Real-world considerations

  • Familiar — #107 in the latest U.S. ranking.
  • Spelling note: Ana (single-n Spanish/Portuguese form).
  • Anna is not itself the original coinage but a Greek/Latin transliterated form of Hannah, so its meaning is inherited directly from the Hebrew root rather than being a separately derived etymology.
Explore alternatives
Hannah

Documented as a related name or variant form.

Ann

Documented as a related name or variant form.

Anne

Documented as a related name or variant form.