Agnes (name)

Female given name


title: "Agnes (name)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["danish-feminine-given-names", "english-feminine-given-names", "estonian-feminine-given-names", "feminine-given-names", "filipino-feminine-given-names", "finnish-feminine-given-names", "french-feminine-given-names", "german-feminine-given-names", "greek-feminine-given-names", "given-names-of-greek-language-origin", "hungarian-feminine-given-names", "icelandic-feminine-given-names", "norwegian-feminine-given-names", "scandinavian-feminine-given-names", "swedish-feminine-given-names", "english-language-feminine-given-names"] description: "Female given name" topic_path: "geography/france" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_(name)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Female given name ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox given name2"]

FieldValue
nameAgnes
imageFr_Guarino_Santa_Inés_1650.jpg
captionThe name Agnes was widely used to honor Saint Agnes of Rome
genderFeminine
meaning"pure, holy"
languageEnglish, Greek, Germanic
::

| name = Agnes | image = Fr_Guarino_Santa_Inés_1650.jpg | caption = The name Agnes was widely used to honor Saint Agnes of Rome | pronunciation = | gender = Feminine | meaning = "pure, holy" | language = English, Greek, Germanic | seealso = Agnes is a feminine given name derived from the Greek Ἁγνή , meaning 'pure' or 'holy'. This was Latinized Hagnes, and passed to Italian as Agnese,{{cite magazine|title=20 nomi femminili vintage (ma ancora bellissimi) |url =https://www.donnamoderna.com/amore-relazioni/nomi-femminili-vintage|access-date =21 August 2022|magazine =Donna Moderna|date =25 May 2022|language =it}} to French as Agnès, to Agnes in English and other Germanic languages, to Portuguese as Inês, and to Spanish as Inés.

Inès and Inez are modern French and English (international) derivatives of the Iberian variant.

The name descends from the Proto-Indo-European *h₁yaǵ-, meaning 'to sacrifice; to worship', from which also the Vedic term yajña originates. The Sanskrit Agni (अग्नि, ’fire’) can perhaps also be seen as related. The name is mostly used in Greece and in countries that speak Germanic languages.

It was the name of a popular Christian saint, Agnes of Rome, a fact which encouraged its wide use. "Agnes" was the third-most popular name for women in the English-speaking world for more than 400 years. The traditional Welsh variant or diminutive is Nesta. Its medieval English pronunciation was Annis, and this and many other of its forms coincided with the equally popular name "Anna" (incl. Anne and Ann) which has a different origin, derived from the Hebrew 'Hannah" ('God favored me') rather than from the Greek. Agnes remained a widely used name throughout the 1960s in the United States, and last ranked among the top 1,000 names for American baby girls during that decade.

The peak of Agnes' popularity came between 1900 and 1920, when it was among the top fifty given names for American girls. Agnieszka was the sixth-most popular name for girls born in Poland in 2007, having risen as high as third place in Sweden and Poland in 2006. It also ranked among the top one hundred names for baby girls born in Hungary in 2005. Neža, a Slovene shortened variant of the name, ranked among the top ten names for baby girls born in Slovenia in 2008. The French forms Inès and Ines both ranked among the top ten names for girls born in Brussels, Belgium in 2008.

Name variants

Notable people

Saints

Noblewomen

Fictional characters

Others

Agnes

  • Agnes, stage name of Swedish singer Agnes Carlsson (born 1988)

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  • Agnes Yombwe (born 1966), Zambian mixed media artist, arts educator, author, and mentor

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Ágnes

Agnès

Agness

Agnieszka

References

sl:Neža fr:Agnès (prénom)

References

  1. Rosenkrantz, Linda, and Satran, Pamela Redmond (2007). ''Baby Name Bible''. St. Martin's Griffin. {{ISBN. 978-0-312-35220-2
  2. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/books/chapters/first-chapter-shakespeares-wife.html "Shakespeare's Wife". ''New York Times''. 4-27-2008.]
  3. [http://www.behindthename.com/top/search.php?terms=agnes Behind the Name]

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

danish-feminine-given-namesenglish-feminine-given-namesestonian-feminine-given-namesfeminine-given-namesfilipino-feminine-given-namesfinnish-feminine-given-namesfrench-feminine-given-namesgerman-feminine-given-namesgreek-feminine-given-namesgiven-names-of-greek-language-originhungarian-feminine-given-namesicelandic-feminine-given-namesnorwegian-feminine-given-namesscandinavian-feminine-given-namesswedish-feminine-given-namesenglish-language-feminine-given-names