Anna?

[NameHelp2020]

Thoughts on the name Anna? We wanted a short name that works in many countries but someone said it’s boring and dated.

One of my favourites

Beautiful name. One of my favourites.

I love it, one of the few names that are very traditional but not at all boring.

We have an Anna in the family. She loves her name. Timeless, international too. She was nearly Laura which is pretty but didn’t sit so well with the middle name choices.

It is my name! It was pretty common when I was growing up but I never found that a problem. As some other people have pointed out, it is extremely international which I have always found to be a huge benefit - it's easy for everyone to say. Once I went on an exchange with a friend to a (non European) country, staying with a local family. Her name was entirely normal in the UK but very tricky for them to pronounce it turned out, so they just called both of us Anna! 😄

I have a friend named Anna. People also call her Annie. It's a lovely name :)

Except they were Americans trying to do a Scandinavian pronunciation of Anna... and failing... The actual pronunciation varies across the countries that make up Scandinavia but is largely more like 'ANN-na' if that makes sense. It's irked me for a long time 😂

I'm an Anna! I love my name, never thought of it as boring or dated. Never had a problem with pronunciation, no-one's ever tried to call me Ar-na. I do very occasionally get work emails addressed to 'Anne' but on the whole I think it's a lovely classic name that you can't go wrong with.

My youngest's (15) name. So nice to see lots of lovely comments on here.

She's a nightmare but at least I know her name is pretty

Totally!

I remember the Polish midwife at the hospital loving my choice of name, as it basically exists everywhere (Anna/Ana)!

I'm biased as we have a few in the family, but it truly is a great name

Well, yes, but it seems you're completely set on Anna.

Rosalind, Clara, Heidi, Sasha, Nina, Nancy, Hebe.

Can’t go wrong with Anna!

Thank you. Personally they aren’t to my taste given many of them don’t work well internationally.

Hehe beautiful name choice! I am sure I have a teenage stroppy Anna on my hands too in 15 years!!

Beautiful name. Absolutely not dated - in fact I'd say it's timeless which is positive - it's not one of those names that's on trend for 5 minutes. Not boring at all. Your colleague who called it boring sounds rude and dull themself.

Another Anna here! I love my name. It's classic, not completely over used and pretty without being too twee or 'frilly'. The only problem I have ever had is being called Hannah instead of Anna, but even then it wasn't that much of an issue because they weren't significant people in my life. I also had a PE teacher in high school who insisted on calling me Anabelle, but he was just a dick!

Classic and timeless.
You can't go wrong

I'm an Anna who started life with it being pronounced Arna. My mother rapidly surrendered though and I am an Anna. I think I would have found it hard to be correcting people's pronounciation constantly especially as I have a 'difficult' surname.

It's not boring or basic.

its classic.

i know Anna's of all ages.

i bet the person saying it likes unique names & non standard spelling of names. Ignore!!

Lovely

You are 100% right! Suggested Kadie for a girl and Killian for a boy. Hopefully they don’t use mumsnet as this is outing them!

Kadie would have a lifetime of 'no not Katie' and Killian is a bad spelling of Cillian. Neither names aren't particularly vibrant.
Anna is simple and classic.

Boring to me.