Earna
Earna is a short form of an Anglo-Saxon masculine name commencing with earn (eagle), cognate with Norse Arni.
Variants:
Earna [Sir Allen Mawer & Sir Frank Stenton 1926 English Place-Name Society 3: 63].
Earn(a) [Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges 1988 A Dictionary of Surnames, page 19].
Stem:
earn = eagle [Robert Ferguson 1883 Surnames as a Science, page 44].
Suffix:
— a = termination of pet names, such as Cutha for Cuthwine or Cuthwulf [William Searle 1897 Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum, page 1].
Explanation:
“Earna is not on record but would be a regular shortened form of one of the OE names in Earn-” [Sir Allen Mawer & Sir Frank Stenton 1926 English Place-Name Society 3: 198].
Evidence:
The place-name Earnningtone, which occurs in the Will of Bishop Theodræd of London [Susan Kelly 2004 Anglo-Saxon Charters 10: 225], is believed to mean “The farm of Earn(a)’s people” [Percy Reaney 1943 English Place-Name Society 19: 70].
