In the previous chapter I briefly discussed the name of the Father god in some of the world myths. I showed how the various gods were confused with one another, with the Father and the Son being repeated in different relationships as the various nations embellished the old folk memories.
 

In the oldest recorded memories he was known as An. This name is found in Sumerian myths, as well as many others, including Egyptian.

Kramer^MAW discussed the Sumerian pantheon of gods and the embellished stories found on the old clay tablets:
 

An was the Father, while Enlil was the Creator, and Nintu was the female companion of Enlil who helped bring forth human kind.

In the Sumerian story of the Flood, Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah, is given directions to save himself:  
 

  In Sumeria An also meant the sky^HT.
 

In the Akkadian myths, borrowed almost directly from Sumer, the Father god became Anu. In one creation epic it was said^MAW:  
 

This same name is remembered in Hittite mythology:  
 

Here the myths are confused. The Father did not give battle against Alulu, the king of Heaven and Creator. A lesser god gave battle against his creator Father. The theme of warfare in heaven is repeated time and again in the old myths.  
 

In Babylonian myths Anu was the sky god, borrowed from the earlier Akkadians and on back to the Sumerians.
 

Human memories were debased across many cultures and lands, illustrated by ancient Ireland where the Father was transformed into the Earth Mother. As Campbell^MOG stated:
 

In the corrupt religious memories of Egypt An takes on various and assorted forms^EHD. He is:
 

A mythological serpent,
A god who beautifies the faces of the dead, and
The name of a goddess.
 

Ana was the divine father of Pepi I, while Ank was his divine title.
 

As Ani he is the title for Horus, a Son of Osiris, and the one we know from the Bible as Melchizedek. Ani was also a name of Osiris as the Moon-god.
 

Osiris was the leading Egyptian god figure and Creator of the universe. He also carried the name "An of the stars."
 

The Tchatchat-urt-em-Anu was the great council of the Egyptian gods in On, the City of the Sun.
 

An-Kenset and An-ken-mut were names for Egyptian gods^EHD.
 

From the common elements in these old myths we see the origin of the An name. It comes from memory of a Father god in very ancient times. It meant Father, and thus the confusion between the Father of all, and the Creator Father. The Creator Osiris carried the name An. An was the divine Father of Pepi I. In Hittite mythology Anu was the first of the gods. In Sumeria An was the leading god figure, father of Enlil and Nintu. Unfortunately, the memory of this god name was mostly forgotten in folk traditions from other cultures.
 

Examples of the An name are found in many regions of the world:

An, Burma  An Pass, Burma  An Khon, Laos  An Ling, China

An Shan, China  An Phu Dong, Vietnam  An Teallach Mountain, Scotland

And so on.
 

Many times the names are spelled with "O" rather than "A." This is found in the biblical name On for the Egyptian City of the Sun which the Greeks called Heliopolis. Other examples are:
 

or On doublets are:
 

In my attempt to find a Semitic connection I discovered that the An word may have a complicated history. Hebrew uses an as an adverbial form, meaning "whence?, where?, or wither?," (should we assume questions asked of God whereabouts?), but otherwise there seems to be no direct connection to the An of the mythologies and place names.
 

On the other hand, another Hebrew word is closer to our search. On means "might, ability, strength, vigor, power and wealth²⁰²." It also could mean "ease, rest, freedom from toil and trouble." With a slight variation in inflection it also could mean "weariness, sorrow, and trouble" but these forms may derive out of opposition to the basic meaning.
 

Note that in these different forms the initial "a" sound may vary, leading to different applications in the different languages, or to different applications in the same language. It may be "a" as in "father." Or it may be "aw" as in "law." The latter then leads to representation as "o" rather than "a."
 

Perhaps "An" or "On" come from an earlier linguistic form. Hebrew ayin⁵⁸⁶⁹ is a basic root word which, through inflectional variations, led to "an" or "on," but its origin is unknown.
 

Its meaning as a feminine noun is the "eye." It also means "spring," as in water. The Assyrian form is enu, or inu. Importantly, it has a figurative meaning of "mental and spiritual faculties, acts, and states^BDB."
 

Many place names scattered around the Near East carry this word:  
 

And many others.
 

The same form is found in Ayan River, Ozero Ayan Lake, and a number of other Ayan places in Russia and its provinces. It is also found in:
 

The shift from Ayn or Ain to An is found in the Near East, including:
 

And so on.
 

In anglicized form we have such biblical names as Endor, Engedi, and Enrimmon, where ayin is reduced to En.
 

In the biblical traditions the Ayin, Ain, An, or En form is often understood to mean "fountain." Endor is the "Fountain of Dor" and Engedi is the "Fountain of Gedi." The "fountain" or "spring" is the "eye" of the barren desert landscape. This may be the route by which ayin came to mean "spring."
 

Other than this slim evidence we have no connection between the mythological An gods and the place names. An, the Father, is not remembered well in the myths although his name shows upon the lands.
 

We could surmise connections between the Hebrew words and the An name for the Father. The concept of the "eye" could revolve around the idea that his eye is in all places or that he sees everything. A fountain as the eye of the landscape might suggest that he is the wellspring of all creation, the source of all existence. The idea of strength, power and abundance from the other Hebrew root is obvious in its application to the Father.
 

This brings us to the English words on, one and only. Examination of the origins of on as being "placed upon something," shows no clear connection to one or only. In the old Teutonic languages on has the forms of an and ana but one, although pronounced in Anglo-Saxon as an, was generally pronounced in other Teutonic languages with a sharper accent, as in the modern German ein. It is found in Greek and Old Latin oinos. Note the similarity to the Hebrew ayin. We see these in modern Latin languages as Italian and Spanish uno, and French un.
 

Only derived from the Old English one. Although there is no direct linguistic connection to Semitic languages, this numeral could easily go back to the very ancient An, the One and Only.

As I shall show in following chapters,
 

An married with Hawa is found in Anhwa Hunan, China, and Anhaua River, Brazil. There are also:  
 

An or On marries with Oc, as well as Hawa:
 

Onagawa, Japan (An-Oc-Hawa), or the island of Okinawa (Oc-An-Hawa).