Anne

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Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah or Hanani, meaning 'He has favoured me', the name of the mother of the prophet Samuel.^[1] Anne is a common name in France.

There is an alternative explanation for the meaning of this name. In Sanskrit, Annahita (or Annahitha) is the name of the goddess of water. This word means "the one without sin." 'An', 'ann' and 'anna' are the negating prefix in Indo-European languages and 'hitha' or 'hita' is a Sanskrit word for sin. The short form of the name is Ann, Anne or Anna. This explanation fits better than the word Hannah, as it explains why the name has been linked to Mary. The goddess Annahita has several attributes that are similar to Mary, mother of Christ. It is said that Mary's mother was Anne and the name Mary and Anne are commonly used together. The relation between Anne and Annahita also explains why in some European languages the name has transformed to 'Anita', while a transformation from Hannah to Anita cannot be linguistically explained. There is no historical evidence for the word Hannah having been transcribed to Anne and this claim is unsubstantiated. Hence, this alternative explanation is at least as likely if not more than the above explanation.

It is sometimes used as a male name in the Netherlands (for example Anne de Vries). It has also been used for males in France (Anne de Montmorency) and Scotland (Lord Anne Hamilton)

Notable people named Anne

People commonly known only by the first name Anne

• Saint Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary
• Princess Anne, the name and title of several individuals
  • Anne, only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II
• Watanabe Anne 渡辺杏 (Anne/杏), Japanese model/actress

Other

• Anne Bancroft (1931–2005), American actress
• Anne Baxter (1923–1985), American actress
• Anne Boleyn (c. 1501/1507 – 1536), Queen consort and second wife of King Henry VIII of England
• Anne Bonny (1702–1782?), pirate
• Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672), America's first published poet
• Anne Briscoe, American biochemist
• Anne Brontë (1820–1849), British novelist and poet
• Anne Burrell, TV chef
• Anne Cox Chambers, entrepreneur
• Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle (1836–1918), botanist
• Anne de Montmorency (1493–1567), constable of France, soldier, statesman, and diplomat
• Anne de Noailles (d. 1678), first Duke of Noailles
• Anne de Vries (1904–1964), Dutch writer from Drenthe
• Lord Anne Douglas-Hamilton (1709–1748), Scottish nobleman
• Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg (1432–1462)
• Anne Flournoy, screenwriter and producer
• Anne Francis (1930–2011), American actress
• Anne Frank (1929–1945), Jewish-German diarist
• Anne Geddes, photographer and businesswoman
• Anne Hathaway
  • Anne Hathaway (born 1982), American actress
  • Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare) (1556–1623), wife of William Shakespeare
• Anne Hutchinson (1591–1643), American religious dissenter
• Anne Hyde (1637–1671, Duchess of York
• Anne Jeffreys, actress
• Anne Judkins (born 1964), New Zealand race walker
• Anne Keothavong (born 1983), British tennis player
• Anne Kornblut, author of Notes from the Cracked Ceiling
• Anne Kremer (born 1975), Luxembourgish tennis player
• Anne McCaffrey (1926–2011), Irish science fiction and fantasy writer
• Anne McClain, NASA astronaut
• Anne Meara, American actress and comedian
• Anne Murray, Canadian singer
• Anne Neville (1456–1485), Queen consort of England, wife of King Richard III
• Anne of Austria (1601–1666), Queen consort of France
• Anne of Brittany (1488–1514), Breton ruler, Queen consort of France
• Anne of Cleves (1515–1557), fourth wife of King Henry VIII
• Anne, Queen of Great Britain (1665–1714), Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland; after 1707 Queen of Great Britain
• Anne Provoost, Flemish author
• Anne Rice, American author
• Anne Royall (1769–1854), journalist
• Anne Sexton (1928–1974), American poet
• Anne Seymour Damer (1749–1828), sculptor
• Anne Sullivan (1866–1936), teacher and companion of Helen Keller
• Anne Sweeney, businesswoman
• Anne Veski (born 1956), Estonian pop singer
• Anne Villiers, Countess of Morton (1610–1654)
• Anne Vondeling, Dutch politician

Notable people named Ann

• Ann Alexander Smith
• Ann Bancroft
• Ann Brashares
• Ann Donahue
• Ann Druyan
• Ann Dunham
• Ann Hasseltine Judson
• Ann Lewis Hamilton
• Ann-Margret
• Ann M. Martin
• Ann Miller
• Ann Mitchell
• Ann Petry
• Ann Putnam, Jr.
• Ann Radcliffe
• Ann Richards
• Ann Romney
• Ann Rule
• Ann Sothern
• Ann Wilson
• Julia Ann
• Keren Ann
• LeAnn Rimes

Fictional characters

• Ann Darrow, King Kong (1933) and King Kong (2005)
• Anne Elliot, Jane Austen's Persuasion (novel)
• Anne Glass, Falling Skies
• Anne Lewis, a character in the Robocop franchise
• Anne Page, a character from William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor
• Anne Shirley, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables
• Raggedy Ann

See also

• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Anne's theorem, result from Euclidean geometry, due to Pierre-Leon Anne (1806–1850)
• Lady Anne
• Queen Anne

References