HANNAH BAKER

Biblical name, borne by the mother of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1:2), Hebrew Hanna. It is derived from a Hebrew word meaning ‘He (i.e. God) has favoured me (i.e. with a child)’. See also Anne. This form of the name was taken up as a given name by the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries and remained popular until the late 19th century. Thereafter it fell somewhat from favour but has enjoyed a massive revival since the 1990s.

English: occupational name, from Middle English bakere, Old English bæcere, a derivative of bacan ‘to bake’. It may have been used for someone whose special task in the kitchen of a great house or castle was the baking of bread, but since most humbler households did their own baking in the Middle Ages, it may also have referred to the owner of a communal oven used by the whole village. The right to be in charge of this and exact money or loaves in return for its use was in many parts of the country a hereditary feudal privilege. Compare Miller. Less often the surname may have been acquired by someone noted for baking particularly fine bread or by a baker of pottery or bricks.