Girl · Ancient Greek, through Latin
Agnes
Say it: AG-nis
Meaning
Greek hagnē, 'pure, holy'. It was later associated with Latin agnus 'lamb', which is why the saint is shown with a lamb, but that is not the origin.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
One of the most common girls' names in medieval England and France.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1890s
In the United States
- 158,826 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1899, about 1 in 145 girls
- 182 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianLatinEnglishFrenchSpanishItalianPortugueseGermanPolishHungarianCzechAncient GreekScottish
The family of the name
Other spellings: Agness, Agnys, Annis, Annes
| French | Agnès |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Inés |
| Italian | Agnese |
| Portuguese | Inês |
| German | Agnes |
| Polish | Agnieszka |
| Hungarian | Ágnes |
| Czech | Anežka |
Famous bearers
- Agnes of Rome, virgin martyr of about 304
- Agnes of Bohemia, 13th-century saint
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- Calendars of saints and name days
- Parish baptism registers
- The Paris tax rolls of the 1290s
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.