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Anna / Ana
What do you think of this classic? Is it too overused / simple to make a good first name? Also what spelling do you prefer (Anna or Ana)?*Formerly summitseeker*
--Still seeking summits--
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It's one of my favorite classic names. I like its simplicity and its sweetness. I much prefer Anna over Ana, because I like the Ann-ah pronunciation.
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Anna is the only spelling in use where I live. Ana looks like a word ending: stuff associated with Queen Victoria could be Victoriana etc.I quite like Anna with the English pronunciation; it's widely used by Afrikaans speakers sounding like AHnah, which I'm tired of. And a good friend has a wonderful Anna daughter! I have personal reasons for preferring Anne, of course, and I've used it as a mn for my daughter, so Anna was never in consideration.
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Anna is the name of my youngest dd. My dh chose it. I like it yet I don't love it. Overall, I prefer the Anna spelling because that's what I'm used to, however, I've no problem with Ana in cultures where that is the default.As far as being overused, in my part of the US (Southeast), we just haven't encountered it that often. My Anna is in her freshman year of college and has encountered less than a handful in her entire life. Now Hannah has been a different story altogether. I suppose it would all depend on where you live.As far as the pronunciation, we named Anna with the traditional US pronunciation, however, that all changed when her Kindergarten teacher kept pronouncing it AH-nuh after her best friend. The pronunciation stuck at school and our dd asked us the following year to start calling her AH-nuh. It really hasn't been that much of a problem for her and while I resisted at first, I now actually prefer it while AN-uh seems wrong. :-)
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It's boring. Mildly nasal in many accents. It's not a bad first name, just meh. To me Ana is ah-nuh and Anna is ANN-uh, so it depends on which pronunciation you seek.
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I prefer the spelling Anna. I really like the name, although it’s so common it’s almost lost its beauty. But it’s a classic and really is pretty.
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Yes, it's too overused. I know more girls named Anna and Ana than with any other name. It's the most popular girls name among my friends by far. It gets a little bit annoying to be honest because you have to think of ways to differentiate between them and use the last name or a nickname most of the time. I like the sound but it really needs a good long break. It seems to be falling in the US so I could imagine that it will sound a bit dated in a few years. Not very dated like Traci or something but dated like other classic names such as Stephanie, Amanda or Rebecca. I much prefer Anna.
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Both are excellent but my choice would have have to go to Anna as that was my maternal grandmother's name.
It's not really about which spelling I prefer but which name. Anna and Ana are typically pronounced differently and are vowed as separate names where I come from.
Anna with being said Ann-uh and Ana as on-uh.
I prefer the look and sound of Anna more
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Interesting that you pronounce them differently. Where I live they’re said exactly the same.
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Yeah, I suppose it is. Anna and Ana have just always been vowed as two, entirely different names. I mean at least for the most part. I'm sure there are some folk out there who do say them the same way. Though that percentage of people is sure to be exceedingly low.
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Oh, Anna is marvelous! It's not that overused, so I love it for that. I prefer it spelled Anna.
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