Audrey
Masculine · “noble strength”
Audrey is given to girls far more often — 305,883 girls against 2,929 boys since 1880. See Audrey as a girl 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 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Audrey alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 1,100 people named Audrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Audrey most popular?
Audrey peaked in 1902, reaching #583 nationally. See the whole 1902 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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.
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
- 1894
- Most boys named
- 192067 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #583reached in 1902
- Change vs 2019
- −33.3%6 in 2023, from 9
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
Audreys among us
people named Audrey 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
Audrey 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
- 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.
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Audrey
Masculine
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 1,100 people named Audrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Audrey in 2025?
- Audrey is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Audrey with classmates?
- Audrey 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 Audrey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Audrey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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