Anaïs

Revision History

Date	Editor	Change Summary
4/23/2024, 9:35 PM	Mike C	update #115
4/5/2022, 10:13 PM	Mike C	update #112
7/2/2017, 10:39 PM	Mike C	update #95
1/25/2013, 11:59 PM	Mike C	update #85
2/12/2007, 1:03 AM	Mike C	earliest recorded revision

Gender Feminine

Usage French

Pronounced Pron. /a.na.is/

Meaning & History

Meaning uncertain, possibly a derivative of Anne 1 or Agnès. It was used in Jean-Henri Guy's opera Anacréon chez Polycrate (1798), where it is borne by the daughter (otherwise unnamed in history) of the 6th-century BC tyrant Polycrates of Samos. Guy could have adapted it from a classical name such as Anaitis or Athénaïs.

A famous bearer was the Cuban-French writer Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), known for her diaries.