Re: Agnes
in reply to a message by ADT
The name of one of my grandmothers was Inez & I never really cared for it. (I'm weird, though; I don't like the ever-classic Helen, either). I do like Agnessa and Annis, although to be honest, I never knew Annis was a feminine given name until I looked up Inez a while back. :o) Where I grew up, there was a family whose surname was Annis & they ran a very small chain of grocery stores called (you guessed it) Annis' Grocery. After I got acquainted with the idea of Annis as a fn though, I really fell in love with it. It's like Anne, but not nearly as popular & has a lovely meaning. I think there are a lot of strong feminine names that have died, like Bertha, Agatha, Agnes, Olga & Irene. A lot of it could have to do with the way Americans (mis)pronounce the names. For instance, I love the prn. Bear-tah, but no one in the US says it that way. Americans also seem to put a very hard g on the Ag names, making one think of agriculture. On Olga, Americans often swallow the l making the name sound muddled. Those are really the only reasons I can think as to why the names aren't being used much.