Meredith Andrews has a lot of Annas to thank.

She couldn’t have completed her book, Who is Anna Andersson? without them.

The 50 women were chosen because they share the Scandinavian country’s most common name.

The Bermudian photographer started the book in 2013 while living there with her Swedish husband Sami Lill and their children, Freya, five, and Henry, three.

“The idea was to break the stereotype of what a typical Swedish woman is,” said Ms Andrews, 38.

“It is a pretty strong Hollywood stereotype that they are all curvaceous and blond. It was very important to me to have women from all walks of life.

“I was really trying to create a portrait of Sweden, so it was important I travelled throughout the country. I went north of the Arctic Circle and I was down south where I lived in Lund, and I tried to explore as much in between as possible.”

The book includes photos of each Anna and a little blurb about them.

The profiled Annas were quite different — students, priests, musicians, singers, artists, children and centenarians and different races.

Anna Andersson, 29, from Stockholm, was a graphic designer who lived with her boyfriend and liked to eat pancakes every weekend.

Thirty-six-year-old Anna Andersson of Gothenburg, was a corporate communicator who loved to be out on the road and liked oatmeal and coffee in the morning.

Lomma’s Anna Andersson was 41; a visual merchandiser who loved trawling flea markets in her spare time. She blamed her unimaginative name on the fact that she was the youngest of four children.

“Perhaps her parents ran out of ideas for names,” Ms Andrews wrote.

Andersson is the most common surname in Sweden. Ms Andrews thought the name Anna was so common because it had religious significance as St Anne was the grandmother of Jesus Christ.

“It is one of the most common names in the Christian world,” she said. “There are many different derivatives. It is also pretty and feminine.”

Keeping all the Anna Anderssons straight presented a challenge.

“I had to number them and keep all my communications between them numbered so I didn’t get anyone mixed up,” she said.

The book is published by New Heroes and Pioneers, a small Swedish firm known for art and culture books.

“I pitched several ideas to them and they liked this one,” Ms Andrews said.

“One of the arguments for doing this book was that the book title would have the same name as a large number of potential readers.”

The topic appealed to her because she has always been interested in identity. “My mother is Bermudian and my father is from the United Kingdom,” she said. “I lived in England for a while as a child. I came back to Bermuda to live at 15. I never felt fully at home in Bermuda or in the United Kingdom. When I moved to Sweden I thought the transition would be easy because I knew many Swedish people, but actually I did experience a lot of culture shock.”

However, the process gave her an opportunity to see new parts of the country, meet new people and experience new things that were typically Swedish.

“It was such a luxury to do this book,” she said. “The furthest north my husband has been is just north of Stockholm which is only halfway up the country. He had never been up north.

“It was a real luxury to take the train everywhere. One of the Annas was the tourism rep for Germany in Lapland in northern Sweden. When I met her she took me ice fishing and dog sledding and we went on a snowmobile adventure. We did great stuff that most people who immigrate to Sweden don’t get to see. I felt very lucky.”

The popularity of the name is in decline, however. Last year it was the 81st most popular name for newborn girls in Sweden.

Ms Andrews wrote the book in six months, and moved back to Bermuda with her family in July 2014.

“It was not easy writing an entire book in just a few months, and certainly not while moving countries with two small children in tow,” she said.

“The book worked out better than I ever thought. I am amazed I was able to get my part done in the time frame that I did and that my publisher was able to get his part done in the same time frame.

“The Swedish have name days, so we brought it out on December 9, which is the name day for Anna. The process was a bit rushed but I really enjoyed every step of it.”

She used a combination of the internet, Facebook and government registration files to find her subjects.

Anna is one of the most popular names in the world.

“It is a biblical name with lots of derivatives,” she said. “It was a real honour to get to meet all these amazing women. They were all lovely.”

Ms Andrews is now looking at doing another book based on a popular name in the United Kingdom. She hasn’t yet settled on the exact name and is still researching.

• Who is Anna Andersson? is available at Urban Cottage on Front Street. There will be a book launch there tonight from 5pm to 8pm. For more information see meredithandrewsphotography.com.