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[Facts] Indian male Anna?
An Indian hunger striker, definitely a man, named Anna Hazare is in the news. Our database shows nothing but the obvious feminine version. Does anyone know about male Annas in India? And isn't or wasn't an anna a small Indian coin? Could there be a link there?
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Anna means elder brother in Kannada, a regional Indian language. He is endearingly called so. His real name is different as cleared by Kirke. Anna in Sanskrit means foodgrain but I haven't heard of any name in that sense. Ana in Hindi does mean coin but this word and the kind of coin it denotes is no more in use.Anna in Anna Hazare, Anna in Sanskrit and Ana as a coin are spelled and prounounced differently. Ana meaning coin, I suppose is similar to English name Ana or Anna in pronunciation.

This message was edited 8/18/2011, 9:11 PM

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His name is Kisan Baburao Hazare. I'm not sure why he is called Anna though. His native language is Marathi but I don't know if Anna comes from that particular language in this case.You might also be interested in knowing that a 7th century king of East Anglia was called Anna:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_of_East_Anglia
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