NANCY HALL

Of uncertain origin. From the 18th century it is clearly used as a pet form of Ann (see Nan), but it may originally have been a similar formation deriving from the common medieval given name Annis, a vernacular form of Agnes. Nowadays it is an independent name, and was especially popular in America in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. A meaning of the name Nancy is Grace.

English, Scottish, Irish, German, and Scandinavian: from Middle English hall (Old English heall), Middle High German halle, Old Norse hōll all meaning ‘hall’ (a spacious residence), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a hall or an occupational name for a servant employed at a hall. In some cases it may be a habitational name from places named with this word, which in some parts of Germany and Austria in the Middle Ages also denoted a salt mine. The English name has been established in Ireland since the Middle Ages, and, according to MacLysaght, has become numerous in Ulster since the 17th century.