Hanne

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1961. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin. Hanne has a related form in Hannah. The history of Hannah gives this family its wider story. In the biblical narrative, Hannah is the mother of the prophet Samuel. English Puritans adopted this form in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, alongside its continuing use as a Jewish name. In German use, Hanne shares an earlier linguistic root with Jane. The history of Jane gives this family its wider story. Lady Jane Grey is one of the name’s historical bearers. In fiction, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre gave it a lasting nineteenth-century association; the novel appeared in 1847.

Combines direct and name-family evidence