Audrey
Feminine · “noble strength”
Audrey is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 305,883 girls against 2,929 boys since 1880. See Audrey as a boy name
Audrey is very likely the only Anglo-Saxon woman's name in ordinary use today. Edith, Mildred, Winifred and the rest have gone quiet or gone entirely; this one survived because it stopped looking Anglo-Saxon a thousand years ago and nobody noticed what it was.
How old is the name Audrey?
Audrey first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Audrey alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 213,000 people named Audrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Audrey most popular?
Audrey peaked in 2013, reaching #33 nationally. Today it ranks #86, 53 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aethelthryth to Audrey
The story of Audrey
The woman behind it made two political marriages and kept out of both. Aethelthryth was a princess of East Anglia, married first to a local king and then to a much younger Northumbrian one, and by her own account and her biographer's she remained a virgin through both; when the second husband changed his mind about the arrangement, she left, walked to Ely, and founded a monastery on land she had been given as a marriage settlement. She ran it until she died. Her shrine there was one of the great English pilgrimage sites for eight centuries, and the fair held at it gave English a word it still uses without knowing why.
Meaning
noble strength
The Old English original joins a word for noble to one for strength. The modern form preserves almost none of the letters, which is a large part of why it survived.
Cultural footprint
Audrey Hepburn (b. 1929) — Breakfast at Tiffany's icon and devoted UNICEF ambassador
Audrey Tautou (b. 1976) — Star of the beloved French film Amélie
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Aethelthryth
- Etheldreda
- Audrey
Related forms: Audrey · Etheldreda
Pronouncing Audrey
AW-dree
Two syllables with the weight at the front. French says it the same way, which is unusual for a name that crosses the Channel.
Nicknames for Audrey
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 20135,605 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #33reached in 2013
- Change vs 2022
- −12.6%2,919 in 2025, from 3,340
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.
Audrey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Audrey in French — same name
- Etheldreda in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Audreys among us
people named Audrey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 551 born in 2025 was named Audrey
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 Bonnie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Audrey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bonnie climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bonnie's path sketches the road Audrey is walking now.
Audrey is coming down from a big peak (#33 in 2013). 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 Audrey is headed
Audrey 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.
Audrey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Audrey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing in English and in French.
- It has a documented English history reaching back to the seventh century.
- It is short, has no silent letters and needs no explanation.
- It has been in continuous use in American records since the earliest years of the count.
- The word tawdry comes from this name, and someone will eventually mention it.
- It is currently very popular, so a child may share it with others.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Audrey
Feminine · #86 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Audreys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 213,000 people named Audrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Audrey in 2025?
- Audrey ranks #86 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,919 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Audrey?
- About 1 in every 551 US girls born in 2025 was named Audrey — 2,919 in all.
- Will my child share the name Audrey with classmates?
- Audrey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Audrey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maria#87 · Kennedy#85 · Autumn#88 · Addison#84 · Natalie#89 · Lucia#83 · Sarah#90 · Josie#82
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Audrey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Audrey and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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