So what does Anu mean?
This is a question I get asked quite often. Many people wonder if my name Anu Garg is an anagram of something. It is not (though "Name is Anu Garg" does anagrammatize to "Anagram Genius"). Anu is a real name. It's short for "Anurag" meaning "love". Also, Anu is a word from Sanskrit, the classical literary language of India. In Sanskrit Anu has many meanings including atom and molecule, and as a prefix it denotes after, together, similar, every, each, etc.
Numerous people have written to tell me that Anu is a popular name in many other countries too. Here is a list of countries/languages where you may find this name and some other fun facts about it:
- It's a popular name in Estonia, Finland, and India.
- In Hawaiian, it means coolness, cold, or temperature.
- In Hebrew, Anu (אָנוּ) means us or we.
- In Indonesian, it means something unknown.
- In Inuktitut, it means sled dog harness.
- In Maori, it means cold.
- In Telugu, it means to say or to speak.
- Anu was the earliest known librarian (around 2000 BCE).
- In Igbo language of the Ibo Ethnic group of Nigeria, depending on the pronunciation and intonation, it means to marry/to hear/to wage/meat.
- In Gokana it means his or her own.
- Anu is the name of the sky god in Akkadian (the Semitic language of the Assyrians and Babylonians).
- From the Dictionary of Celtic Goddesses and Heroines by Edain McCoy,
chapter "Celtic Myth & Magick":
Anu (Irish) In Myth - {AW-noo} (also spelled as Ana anCatana) Anu is the virgin aspect of one of the triple Goddesses of Ireland. Her Mother aspect is Dana, or Danu, and her crone aspect is Badb. She is known as a Goddess of prosperity and abundance, which suggests that name is also associated with the Mother aspect of this triplicity. In Magick and Rituals - Call on Anu for fertility and magick. - Anu is the name of a Sumerian god. It means "the Heavenly One".
- Anũ is the name of an indigenous community in Venezuela.
- Anu, is a name in the Yoruba ethnic group in Nigeria. It means
mercy. It's the short form of the name: Anuoluwapo, meaning
the mercy of God is great.
- ANU is an acronym for Australian National University among others.
- ANU is the official three-letter IATA code for the V.C. Bird International Airport in Antigua (Antigua and Barbuda).
- A nu is the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet, among other things.
- In Brazil, anu is a bird. See anu-preto (black anu) and anu-branco (white anu).
easily lends itself to creating an ambigram, that is a word that read the same upside down or in other creative ways
- Many times I get distracted on hearing my name in conversations. "A new project is coming up in July... ," I overhear someone in the hallway and wonder what this eponymous project is about. I'm not even aware of it even though it has obviously been named in my honor as "Anu Project".
- My introduction "I am Anu Garg" is rhopalic.
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