Nana 3

The meaning of this name is indeed uncertain, as the available name sources mention several possibilities for its etymology.

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Two Georgian sources state that Nana is of Greek origin and means პაწაწინა (patsatsina) in Georgian, which translates to English as "wee, tiny, small". There is no adjective with that meaning in (ancient) Greek that starts with ναν- (nan-), but the language *does* have the noun νᾶνος (nanos) meaning "dwarf", which is related to the first element of the English compound word 'nanosecond':

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• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?type=start&lookup=nan&lang=greek (in English)
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BD%E1%BE%B6%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%82 (in English)
• https://lsj.gr/wiki/%CE%BD%E1%BE%B6%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%82 (in English)

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Despite their apparent confidence in that particular etymology, the aforementioned two Georgian sources take the time to mention that some scholars speculate that Nana is associated with the name of an ancient Hittite deity. They neglect to specify which deity, but a quick search on the Internet presented me with the following possibilities:

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• Ḫannaḫanna: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B8%AAanna%E1%B8%ABanna (in English)
• Inanna: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna (in English)
• Nanaya (known in Greek as Nana and Nanaia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanaya (in English)
• Nanna(r): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_(mythology) (in English; this is a male deity, but still...)

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Meanwhile, a Russian source states that Nana means "good, kind" as well as "gentle, tender" - but fails to mention in what language. I looked around and I think that this meaning probably comes from the Hebrew root חָנַן (chanan) meaning "to be gracious, to have mercy, to show favour":

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• https://www.behindthename.com/element/chanan (in English)

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Nana would then essentially be one of the Georgian forms of חַנָּה (Channah). The other Georgian forms are ანანა (Anana) and ანანო (Anano).

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Lastly, the following should be noted about the 4th-century Georgian queen consort of which you speak in the description of this entry: Nana of Iberia came from a Greek territory, which might have been located in the Bosporan Kingdom. This kingdom was a Greco-Scythian state, where Greek and Scythian were commonly spoken. The latter was an eastern Iranian language. So, if Nana was indeed from the Bosporan Kingdom, then we cannot rule out the possibility that she had at least *some* Scythian ancestry and therefore, that her name might have been of Scythian origin. In fact: the Georgian Wikipedia article about Nana mentions that one historical source states that her mother was Persian! It's possible that they actually meant Scythian, but either way she was of Iranian origin.

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SOURCES USED:

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- https://imya.com/name/11522 (in Russian)
- http://kids.ge/baby-name?id=1698 (in Georgian)
- https://web.archive.org/web/20130130185137/http://name.interes.ge/dreams.php?action=view&id=697&from=action=search|by=%E1%83%9C (in Georgian)
- http://www.geogen.ge/ge/wsearch/4316/ (in Georgian; scroll down to the entry for Nana)
- http://www.orthodoxy.ge/sakhelebi/ka/d_nari.htm (in Georgian; this is a list of female saints whose name starts with N)
- see the entry for Anana, which also mentions Anano: https://web.archive.org/web/20130130185958/http://name.interes.ge/dreams.php?action=search&by=%E1%83%90&nr_page=2 (in Georgian; the entry's own page unfortunately was not archived)
- see the entry for Anana, which also mentions Anano: http://www.geogen.ge/ge/wsearch/4304/ (in Georgian; this website copied the complete entry of the prior link)
- Nana of Iberia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_of_Iberia (in English; also see the Georgian version!)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporan_Kingdom (in English)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_languages (in English)