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Agnes Name Meaning, Origins & History

Agnes

Pronunciation: AG-nis

Meaning Pure one Origin Ancient Greek Gender Girl
GIRLS RANK
#1,016
TREND
47
Peak Years
1918, 1917, 1920
Lowest Years
1997, 2002, 1993
Energy Archetype
Powerful & Complete

Rank shows the name’s position among U.S. baby names for each gender in 2025. Trend shows how many places it rose or fell since 2024. Rank 1 is the most popular. Based on U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) data. Peak and lowest years are based on the number of girls named Agnes in the available records.

Fun Facts About the Name Agnes

  • Decades of popularity: Agnes stayed in the U.S. top 100 for 50 consecutive years, from 1880 through 1929.
  • More than 159 thousand babies named Agnes: U.S. records list 159,981 babies given the name Agnes from 1880 through 2025. Even 465 boys received the name Agnes - about 1 boy for every 343 girls.

What Does the Name Agnes Mean?

Agnes comes from the Greek name Hagnē (Ἁγνή), a feminine form built on the Greek adjective hagnos, meaning "pure, holy, chaste." The name is Greek in origin, not Latin, even though it reached western Europe in its Latinized form Agnes. The Latin word agnus, "lamb," sounds almost identical, and because lambs became part of Saint Agnes's iconography, the two words were often linked in Christian writing. That link is symbolic wordplay, not the source of the name. The further origin of hagnos is not settled; it is sometimes connected to an old root meaning "to revere, worship," but this remains uncertain.

Agnes Name History & Origins

The name is best known through Saint Agnes, a Roman girl martyred in the early fourth century, traditionally around 304 during the persecution under Diocletian. She was buried on the Via Nomentana outside Rome, where a basilica was later built in her honor, and her cult spread widely through the Christian world. Because of her, Agnes became a common name in Christian Europe in several local forms: French Agnès, Italian Agnese, Spanish Inés, Portuguese Inês, Polish Agnieszka, and German and Scandinavian Agnes.

In medieval England the name appears in records in Latin as Agnes and in everyday speech as Annis, Annice, and Annot. The pet form Nancy grew out of the medieval habit of saying "mine Annis" or "mine Ann," which was heard as "my Nan." Agnes stayed in general use in England into the seventeenth century, became less common afterward, and was taken up again in the nineteenth.

Later saints carried the name, including Agnes of Bohemia in the thirteenth century and Agnes of Montepulciano in the fourteenth. It also appears in literature: Keats's poem The Eve of St. Agnes (1820), Anne Brontë's novel Agnes Grey (1847), and Agnes Wickfield in Dickens's David Copperfield (1850). Saint Agnes's feast day is January 21.

How Popular is the Name Agnes?

Agnes remained among the top 100 girl names in the U.S. from 1880 to 1929. Its highest annual birth count was in 1918, and people born that year turn 108 in 2026.

U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.

Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.

Explore Name Lists Featuring Agnes

Carl appears in several baby name collections based on U.S. popularity records, naming trends, and name characteristics. Explore these lists to discover other names with similar histories, styles, or features.

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How the Name Agnes Shapes Your Personality and Life?

Powerful and complete. You are good intellectually and require several outlets for your energies. You are not a builder but a planner, and you want others to carry out your plans. You are bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. You know what you want and why you want it.

You are always looking for a chance to do your own thing, to be your own person, and to have things done your own way.

✦ Agnes's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Agnes's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.
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