Hannibal (born 247 B.C.) the Carthaginian, the most implacable enemy of the Romans, when a child of nine years knelt in the temple by the side of his father Hamilcar, and vowed eternal hatred to Rome...
... the far-famed Hannibal himself answered exactly to the Hananiah or Johanan of the Holy Land, saying that it was the grace of Baal that unhappily he besought by his very appellation.  The Greeks called him Annibas, and the Romans wavered between Annibal and Hannibal as the designation of their great enemy.  In the latter times of Rome, when the hereditary prænomina were discarded, Annibal and Annibalianus were given among the grand sounds that mocked their feeble wearers, and Annibale lingered on in Italy, so as to be known to us in the person of Annibale Caracci. 
     It is a more curious fact, however, that Hannibal has always been a favourite with the peasantry of Cornwall.  From the first dawn of parish registers Hannyball is of constant occurrence, much too early, even in that intelligent county, to be a mere gleaning from books; and the west country surname of Honeyball must surely be from the same source. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884)