Andrea
Feminine · Greek roots · “Manly”
Andrea is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 445,419 girls against 6,029 boys since 1880. See Andrea as a boy name
Andrea began as the Greek Andreas, borne by the apostle, and it has been traveling for two thousand years — south into Italy, where it stayed a man's name, and into English as the feminine of Andrew. It is a name that works in Spanish and English mouths alike, which shows in where it is strongest. Three syllables, two accepted pronunciations, both correct.
How old is the name Andrea?
Andrea first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Andrea alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 417,000 people named Andrea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Andrea most popular?
Andrea peaked in 1978, reaching #23 nationally. Today it ranks #235, 212 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Andrea appears on these lists:
- Generation X names (born 1965–1980)
- Millennial names (born 1981–1996)
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- Spanish and Latin names with warmth
- Renaissance names from the Italian courts
- Names that work in Spanish and English
- all guides
Works in French families too:
Where it comes from
From Andreas (Greek) to Andrea
The story of Andrea
The Greek Andreas comes from andreios, 'manly, brave', built on anēr, 'man', and it spread across Christendom with the apostle Andrew. Latin carried it into Italian as Andrea, which is still a man's name in Italy — a fact that surprises many English speakers on their first trip there. In English records, Andrea appears from the seventeenth century as a Latinate feminine of Andrew, and it spread widely through German-, Spanish- and Central European-speaking countries in the twentieth century, feminine in all of them. In the United States it belongs firmly to women, among them the astronomer Andrea Ghez, who proved that a supermassive black hole sits at the center of our galaxy.
Meaning
Manly, brave — from Greek andreios, from anēr, andros, 'man'
The English feminine Andrea was formed from Andrew, which descends from the same Greek root.
Cultural footprint
Andrea Ghez (b. 1965) — Nobel-winning astronomer who proved our galaxy has a giant black hole
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- AndreasGreek
- AndreasLatin
- Andrew
- Andrea
Related forms: Andrea · Andrea · Andrea · Andrée · Andreas · Andreja
Pronouncing Andrea
AN-dree-uh
Also widely said ahn-DRAY-uh in American English, and both are standard — many bearers answer to either. In Italian it is ahn-DREH-ah, with the stress on the middle.
Nicknames for Andrea
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 198211,374 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #23reached in 1978
- Change vs 2022
- −29.2%1,317 in 2025, from 1,859
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Andrea in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Andrea in Italian — same name
- Andrea in Spanish — same name
- Andrea in German — same name
- Andrée in French — related form
- Andreas in Greek — same name
- Andreja in Croatian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Andreas among us
people named Andrea are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,220 born in 2025 was named Andrea
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Denise test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Andrea's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Denise climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Denise's path sketches the road Andrea is walking now.
Andrea peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Andrea is headed
Andrea should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Andrea beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Andrea in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the same way in English, Spanish, Italian, German and much of Central Europe — no translation, no respelling at a border.
- Several established short forms already in circulation: Andi, Andie, Drea.
- A spelling almost everyone can write on first hearing, with no silent letters or optional h.
- A documented line back to Greek, unbroken through Latin and Italian.
- Two pronunciations are both correct, AN-dree-uh and ahn-DRAY-uh, which means a lifetime of gentle correcting — or of accepting whichever one a stranger reaches for.
- In Italy, Andrea is a man's name and always has been. That rarely causes trouble in the United States, but it can produce a raised eyebrow on a form abroad.
- The name is still strongly represented among adults in their forties, so it may read as a grown woman's name for a while before it reads as a child's. Names of that age tend to come back around.
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Andrea
Feminine · Greek roots · #235 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Andreas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 417,000 people named Andrea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Andrea in 2025?
- Andrea ranks #235 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,317 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Andrea?
- About 1 in every 1,220 US girls born in 2025 was named Andrea — 1,317 in all.
- Will my child share the name Andrea with classmates?
- Andrea will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Andrea
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nyla#236 · Arianna#234 · Lucille#237 · Maisie#233 · Cataleya#237 · Alexandra#237 · Palmer#232 · Wren#231
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Andrea? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Andrea and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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