I'd assume they were in use in the 17th century, as they were still in use in the 19th century, although quite rare. The Welsh bmds which I have access to list several occurrences of Annes, Anness, and Annesta between 1840 and 1925. (No Annest) There are also hundreds of Nestas - looks like
Nesta took over from the original name.
This message was edited 8/6/2009, 9:35 AM