Pollyanna

Pollyanna started as a double barrel name and then became a compounded name in its own right, made up of the two favourite feminine names Polly and Anna. Polly is one of a very large group of names that stem from the ever popular feminine Hebrew name Mary, which has very variations in countries with a large Christian population. It may seem strange that Polly is a pet form of Mary, but Polly comes from Molly which is itself linked to Mary. All of the names share the meaning of ‘Sea Star’. Anna is also Hebrew and means ‘God Favours’. These are both Christian names. Combining the meaning of the two to get the meaning of Pollyanna does not make much sense. However the name itself now connotes a new meaning as it was used as the name for the main character in E. H. Porters novel of the same name. Because of this Pollyanna is now used as a term for someone who is extremely optimistic, like the protagonist from the book.