The name ANNA is a variant of the name Hanna, which was borne in the Bible by the mother of Samuel, and there is a tradition (unsupported by biblical evidence) that it was the name of the mother of the Virgin Mary. Gilbert de Hannethe or de Hahanith was recorded in Wigtons at the end of the 13th century, and may have been an early bearer, if not the first of the name. Sir William de ANNE was the constable of Tickhill Castle in South Yorkshire in 1315, and was the ancestor of several landed and titled families, including the ANNES of Burghwallis, the Charltons of Great Canfield and the Barons Heneage. The name is also spelt ANN, ANNE, HANNAH and HANNA. John of Hanna is recorded as the master of a ship belonging to the King of Scotland in the year 1424. Surnames as we recognise them today are believed to have been introduced by the Normans after the Invasion of 1066. The first mention of such names appears in the Domesday Book and they were progressively adopted between the 11th and 15th centuries. It was the nobles and upper classes who first assumed a second name, setting them apart from the common people who continued to use only the single name given to them at birth. It was not until the reign of Edward II (1307-1327) that it became common practice to use a secondary name, originally a name reflecting the place of birth, a nickname, an occupational name or a baptismal name which had been passed on from a parent to the child, as an additional means of identification. ANNA Comnena (1083-1148) was the Byzantine princess and historian, daughter of the emperor Alexius I Comnenus. In 1097 she married Nicephorus Bryennius, for whom she tried to gain the imperial crown after her father's death in 1118; she took up literature and after her husband's death in 1137, retired to a convent where she wrote 'Alexiad' an account of Byzantine history and society for the period 1069-1118, including a flattering biography of her father.