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.