[Facts] Re: King Anna and his name
in reply to a message by clevelandkentevans
PASE lists 7 people by this name, including the king: http://www.pase.ac.uk/jsp/pdb?dosp=VIEW_RECORDS&st=PERSON_NAME&value=10527&level=1&lbl=Anna
Foerstermann lists Anna as a continental Germanic name, noting an Anglo-Saxon form Anna as well. He does this in the section for the prototheme An- which he speculates is from Old High German *ano* "ancestor" and/or *an* "favour, grace". This is on page 99 of my edition.
(There's also Old English *an* meaning "one", but I'm not sure it was used as a name element.)
Presumably Anna would be a short form/diminutive for a longer dithematic name with the first element being An-. The ending -a is an Old English diminutive suffix.
Foerstermann lists Anna as a continental Germanic name, noting an Anglo-Saxon form Anna as well. He does this in the section for the prototheme An- which he speculates is from Old High German *ano* "ancestor" and/or *an* "favour, grace". This is on page 99 of my edition.
(There's also Old English *an* meaning "one", but I'm not sure it was used as a name element.)
Presumably Anna would be a short form/diminutive for a longer dithematic name with the first element being An-. The ending -a is an Old English diminutive suffix.
Replies
Thanks so much for this information!
Since Old English is quite closely related to Old Frisian, we should also take into account the possibility that the king's name is etymologically related to the masculine Frisian given name Anne:
https://www.behindthename.com/name/anne-2 (I was unable to link to this specific entry in the usual way on BtN)
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Frisian_languages (in English)
https://www.behindthename.com/name/anne-2 (I was unable to link to this specific entry in the usual way on BtN)
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Frisian_languages (in English)
that corresponds to the moneyers names (Anna/Arnulf) listed by Hovite, and parallels another OE name (which for the moment slips my mind) which matches a Frisian pet form of a dithematic name.
Indeed it does! :) By the way, a variant of the Frisian name Anne is Anno, which resembles the Anglo-Saxon king's name more closely:
• see page 17 of Friesche Naamlijst (Onomasticon Frisicum) (1898) written by Johan Winkler: http://images.tresoar.nl/wumkes/pdf/WinklerJ_FriescheNaamlijst.pdf (in Dutch; it might take a while to load, as the file size is 26 MB)
Anno was also used in medieval German as a diminutive or short form of Arnold (though other Arn- names should also be possible; also compare Arno in the main database). So, the name is not exclusively Frisian:
• https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Anno (in English)
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_(Vorname) (in German)
Anno was the name of several medieval German bishops, the earliest of which was bishop Anno I of Cologne (died around 715 AD):
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_I. (in German)
• see page 17 of Friesche Naamlijst (Onomasticon Frisicum) (1898) written by Johan Winkler: http://images.tresoar.nl/wumkes/pdf/WinklerJ_FriescheNaamlijst.pdf (in Dutch; it might take a while to load, as the file size is 26 MB)
Anno was also used in medieval German as a diminutive or short form of Arnold (though other Arn- names should also be possible; also compare Arno in the main database). So, the name is not exclusively Frisian:
• https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Anno (in English)
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_(Vorname) (in German)
Anno was the name of several medieval German bishops, the earliest of which was bishop Anno I of Cologne (died around 715 AD):
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_I. (in German)