Aubry
Masculine · “elf ruler”
Aubry is given to both — 1,611 boys and 3,020 girls since 1880. See Aubry as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Aubry is a shortened spelling of Aubrey, and Aubrey is the same name as Oberon. The Germanic original passed into French, softened, and came to England with the Normans; a separate branch of it stayed in German legend as the dwarf-king of the Nibelung stories, and a French romance turned that figure into the king of the fairies whom Shakespeare later borrowed.
How old is the name Aubry?
Aubry first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Aubry alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 700 people named Aubry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aubry most popular?
Aubry peaked in 1904, reaching #1064 nationally. See the whole 1904 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Germanic compound of elf and ruler to Aubry
The story of Aubry
The Germanic name belonged to a dwarf king who guards a hoard, and the French poets who retold those stories turned him into something lighter and more courtly: a small king of the otherworld, powerful and capricious, who appears in a thirteenth-century romance and eventually in an English play about a wood outside Athens. The same name, arriving in England by the ordinary route as a personal name rather than a character, became Aubrey. The two forms have been separate for eight hundred years and nobody notices they are the same word. The English Aubrey worth knowing wrote things down: a seventeenth-century antiquary who collected short biographical sketches of everyone he could get information about, gossip included, and whose notes are the only source for a great many facts about people otherwise lost, including most of what is said about Shakespeare's habits.
Meaning
elf ruler
Two Germanic elements: one naming the elves, who were real supernatural beings in that culture rather than decorations, and one meaning power or rule. The combination is well attested and the reading is not disputed. What is easy to miss is that the elf element was ordinary in Germanic naming and appears in a dozen other names, which means the first half of this name is no stranger than the second.
How the name formed
- A Germanic compound of elf and ruler
- Alberich in German legend, Auberon in French romance
- Aubrey in England after the conquest
- Aubry and Aubree as American spellings for daughters
Related forms: Aubry · Alberich · Aubrey
Pronouncing Aubry
AW-bree
Two syllables, stress on the first, identical to Aubrey in speech. The missing e is silent in both spellings, so the difference is entirely visual, and French says the same letters with the stress at the back instead.
Nicknames for Aubry
Moderate
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 192138 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1064reached in 1904
- Change vs 2020
- 0.0%5 in 2023, from 5
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.
Aubry in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aubry in French — same name
- Alberich in German — related form
- Aubrey in English — spelling variant
Aubrys among us
people named Aubry are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Aubry sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The sound is completely familiar while the spelling is not, which is a comfortable combination.
- It works on the register for either child, and has done so throughout its history.
- It carries a genuine Germanic meaning and an unusually good literary trail behind it.
- Aubrey is the standard spelling and this one will be converted into it on most paperwork.
- The name crossed from boys to girls within living memory, so older people will read it differently.
- There are at least four spellings in current use and none of them is dominant.
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What they receive
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Aubry
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Aubrys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Aubry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aubry in 2025?
- Aubry is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Aubry with classmates?
- Aubry will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aubry? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aubry and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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