The region of Gondor between Minas Tirith and Rohan (LotR/750), translated “Sunlending” (RC/776). Its initial element is clearly Anor “Sun”, and its final element is the plural -ien of the suffix -ian(d) “land”, common in place names. Thus, the literal meaning of the name is “✱Sun-lands”.
Conceptual Development: On the draft maps for the Lord of the Rings from the 1940s, this name first appeared as (Quenya?) Anarion (TI/310) and once (rejected) in the draft texts as Anárion (TI/282), but this was changed to N. Anórien on both the maps (TI/318) and later drafts (WR/141).
anor (“the sun”) + iend (-end commonly used suffix in the names of regions and countries) #The long ó could probably reflect the long vowel in the primitive root that remains long (in the first element of a compound) when stressed.