Baby name

CLASSIC GIRL · ENGLISH
🇧🇷 🇩🇪 🇺🇸

Pollyanna

/pol · ee · AN · ah/


“Compound of Polly and Anna”

Compound of Polly and Anna, from English and Hebrew sources; synonymous with naive optimism through Eleanor H. Porter's 1913 novel; complex cultural baggage.

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warmelegant

How it ages.

The novel association makes it feel literary but also burdens it with the 'Pollyanna' idiom; ages ambiguously.

The cultural moment.

Niche use in the US and Brazil throughout the 20th century; never mainstream.