Anna (अन्न, IAST: Anna) is an Sanskrit-origin Hindu boy-name meaning “Food; nourishing sustenance; the life-giving one”. From the root ad (to eat, to nourish), anna means food in its most sacred sense, and Vishnu as Anna is the divine nourishment that sustains all life at every level of existence.

Meaning, etymology & significance

The Taittirīya Upaniṣad famously declares annaṃ brahma — food is Brahman — a teaching that finds its devotional expression in this name of Vishnu. Rooted in ad (to eat, to sustain), anna is the primal nourishment without which no being can exist. Vishnu as Anna is not merely food for the physical body but the essential sustenance of the mind, the prāṇa, and the soul — He who feeds the entire cosmos from His own infinite being.

This name echoes the Vedantic insight that the Lord pervades creation as its very nutritive essence; while anna is widely known as a feminine given name in various cultures, in its Sanskrit devotional context it is a profound divine epithet — pronounced AN-na, it is noted here as theologically significant and flagged for review in a boy-name context.

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Scriptural source

Anna appears in the Vishnu Sahasranama, among the sacred names of Vishnu.

Astrology — nakshatra, rashi & numerology

By the standard Vedic correspondence between a name’s first syllable and the lunar mansion, Anna aligns with the Krittika nakshatra, under the Mesha rashi (Moon sign). Its Chaldean name-number is 3.