Andrew
Masculine · “manly”
Andrew is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,329,454 boys against 4,961 girls since 1880. See Andrew as a girl name
Andrew is a Greek name carried by a Galilean fisherman, and that combination is more interesting than it looks. Two of the twelve disciples have Greek names rather than Aramaic ones, which tells you something about how thoroughly Greek had soaked into the eastern Mediterranean by then. The word underneath simply means manly — from the ordinary Greek word for a man.
How old is the name Andrew?
Andrew was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Andrew alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 1,138,000 people named Andrew are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Andrew most popular?
Andrew peaked in 1988, reaching #5 nationally. Today it ranks #73, 68 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Where it comes from
From andreios to Andrew
The story of Andrew
Andrew was the first of the disciples called, according to John's Gospel, and the traditions about him send him east and north — to Greece, where he is said to have been martyred on a diagonal cross, and to the Black Sea. That diagonal cross became the saltire, which is why it is on the flags of Scotland, of Russia's navy, and inside the Union Jack. He is patron saint of Scotland, Russia, Greece, Ukraine and Romania, which is a wider portfolio than almost any other saint holds. In America the name has been in continuous use since records began and reached the very top of the list in the late twentieth century, which is why so many adults carrying it now are of one generation.
Meaning
manly, brave
From the Greek andreios, manly or courageous, built on aner, a man, in the stem form andros. The same root gives English android and misandry, and it is one of the most productive words in Greek naming.
Cultural footprint
Andrew Carnegie (b. 1835) — Steel titan who gave away his fortune building 2,500 libraries
Andrew Garfield (b. 1983) — Spider-Man and Hacksaw Ridge star
Andrew Jackson (b. 1767) — The president on the $20 bill
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- andreios
- Andreas
- Andrew
Related forms: Andreas · Andrés · Andrea · Andrei · André · Andrzej
Pronouncing Andrew
AN-droo
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Italian Andrea is a man's name said an-DRAY-ah, which regularly confuses English speakers who read it as a woman's name; the two are the same name in different languages.
Nicknames for Andrew
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1992 — Hurricane Andrew
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 198736,206 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #5reached in 1988
- Change vs 2022
- −13.0%4,497 in 2025, from 5,168
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.
Andrew in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Andreas in Greek — transliteration
- Andrés in Spanish — same name
- Andrea in Italian — same name
- Andrei in Russian — same name
- André in French — same name
- Andrzej in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Andrews among us
people named Andrew are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 380 born in 2025 was named Andrew
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 Joseph test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Andrew's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Joseph climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Joseph's path sketches the road Andrew is walking now.
Andrew has held the top-100 across 15 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Andrew is headed
Andrew should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Andrew beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Andrew in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has been in continuous use in English for the better part of a thousand years and has never sounded dated.
- Andy and Drew are both fully established and belong to different generations, so a boy has real range.
- Every European language has a form of it, which makes it unusually portable.
- The meaning is one word long and impossible to misremember.
- It reached the very top of the American list within living memory, so a man of a certain age will have shared classrooms with several.
- Andrew and Andrea are the same name in Italy and different names here, which causes confusion abroad.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy; the girls in the record are few enough that no form will expect one.
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What they receive
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Andrew
Masculine · #73 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Andrews are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,138,000 people named Andrew are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Andrew in 2025?
- Andrew ranks #73 among US boy names in 2025, with 4,497 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Andrew?
- About 1 in every 380 US boys born in 2025 was named Andrew — 4,497 in all.
- Will my child share the name Andrew with classmates?
- Andrew will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Andrew's chart?
- Andrew faded after 1992 — Hurricane Andrew.
Ranked beside Andrew
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Enzo#72 · Adrian#74 · Atlas#75 · Silas#71 · Cameron#76 · Jayden#70 · Everett#77 · Lincoln#69
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Andrew? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Andrew and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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