Aubrey
Feminine · “elf ruler”
Aubrey is given to both — 133,515 girls and 31,090 boys since 1880. See Aubrey as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Aubrey came into English with the Normans, an old Germanic name reshaped by French mouths until it sounded like the word it is now. It spent centuries as a men's name and a surname in England, then found a second life in America as a name for girls, helped along by a soft-voiced 1972 pop song. Two syllables, both open, nothing to trip over.
How old is the name Aubrey?
Aubrey first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Aubrey alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 132,000 people named Aubrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aubrey most popular?
Aubrey peaked in 2012, reaching #15 nationally. Today it ranks #146, 131 places below that high. See the whole 2012 chart.
Where it comes from
From Alberich to Aubrey
The story of Aubrey
The root is the Germanic Alberich, built from *alb*, 'elf', and *rīc*, 'power' or 'ruler'. Old French speakers wore it down to Auberi, and the Normans carried that form into England after 1066, where it settled among the aristocracy and then hardened into the surnames Aubrey and Aubery. For most of its English life it belonged to men. In the United States it turned toward girls over the twentieth century, and the 1972 Bread song 'Aubrey', written by David Gates about a girl, arrived just as that shift was gathering speed.
Meaning
elf ruler — from Germanic *alb* 'elf' and *rīc* 'power, ruler'
The underlying Germanic name is Alberich, the same name borne by the dwarf-king of the medieval German Nibelungenlied.
Cultural footprint
Aubrey Plaza (b. 1984) — Deadpan queen of Parks and Recreation and The White Lotus
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Alberich
- Auberi
- Aubrey
Related forms: Alberich · Alberico · Aubéry · Alberico · Aubree · Aubrie
Pronouncing Aubrey
AW-bree
Two syllables, stress on the first. The main hazard is not pronunciation but hearing: over the phone it is easily taken for Audrey, so a spelling often follows.
Nicknames for Aubrey
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
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 20128,061 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #15reached in 2012
- Change vs 2022
- −33.2%2,003 in 2025, from 2,999
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.
Aubrey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alberich in German — same name
- Alberico in Italian — same name
- Aubéry in French — same name
- Alberico in Spanish — related form
- Aubree in English — spelling variant
- Aubrie in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Aubreys among us
people named Aubrey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 802 born in 2025 was named Aubrey
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 Chelsea test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aubrey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chelsea climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chelsea's path sketches the road Aubrey is walking now.
Aubrey is coming down from a big peak (#15 in 2012). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aubrey is headed
Aubrey is easing off slowly — about 25% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Aubrey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aubrey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented line running from Germanic Alberich through Norman French into English — nearly a thousand years of continuous use in one form or another.
- Spelled the way it sounds for an English speaker, and familiar enough that most people write it correctly on the first try.
- Well supplied with short forms already in use: Aubs, Bree, Aub, Rey.
- Widely recognized in the US without being inescapable — a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Exists across several languages as Alberich, Alberico and Aubéry, giving it recognizable relatives outside English.
- Audrey is the constant confusion — same rhythm, one letter apart in sound, and both in current use. Expect to repeat and spell it fairly often.
- The variants Aubree and Aubrie are both in circulation, so people who know the name may still guess the wrong spelling.
- In American records this is now overwhelmingly a girls' name, though its long history is male. A boy named Aubrey wears the older tradition, and will likely need to explain it.
- Having crested fairly recently, the name reads as belonging to a particular young cohort more than to any older generation — something that fades as those children grow up.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Aubrey to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Aubrey
Feminine · #146 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aubreys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 132,000 people named Aubrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aubrey in 2025?
- Aubrey ranks #146 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,003 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aubrey?
- About 1 in every 802 US girls born in 2025 was named Aubrey — 2,003 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aubrey with classmates?
- Aubrey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aubrey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Evangeline#147 · Remi#145 · Kehlani#148 · Genevieve#148 · Natalia#144 · Brielle#143 · June#150 · Melanie#142
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aubrey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aubrey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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