'annona' originates from Taíno, specifically the word 'anon(a)', where it meant 'custard apple'.

'annona' also stems from Latin 'annōna' (from 'annus' meaning 'year'); the Latin term referred to the year's produce or grain supply and was used in Roman administrative contexts. The botanical name was later adopted (by Linnaean botanical Latin) from Taíno into scientific Latin and then into modern English.

Initially Latin 'annōna' meant 'the produce of the year' or 'the grain supply'; over time the word came to be used both for that Roman grain-provision concept and, independently via Taíno into botanical Latin, as the name of a fruit-bearing plant genus 'Annona'.