Audrey
| Pronunciation | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Language(s) | English |
| Origin | |
| Language(s) | Old English |
| Word/name | Æðelþryð |
| Derivation | æðel + þryð |
| Meaning | "noble strength" |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Etheldreda, Ethel, Audie, Audra, Audrea |
Audrey (/ˈɔːdri/) is an English feminine given name. It is the Anglo-Norman form of the Anglo-Saxon name Æðelþryð, composed of the elements æðel "noble" and þryð "strength". The Anglo-Norman form of the name was applied to Saint Audrey (d. 679), also known by the historical form of her name as Saint Æthelthryth. The same name also survived into the modern period in its Anglo-Saxon form, as Etheldred,[1] e.g. Etheldred Benett (1776–1845).
In the 17th century, the name of Saint Audrey gave rise to the adjective tawdry "cheap and pretentious; cheaply adorned". The lace necklaces sold to pilgrims to Saint Audrey fell out of fashion in the 17th century, and so tawdry was reinterpreted as meaning cheap or vulgar. As a consequence, use of the name declined, but it was revived in the 19th century. Popularity of the name in the United States peaked in the interbellum period, but it fell below rank 100 in popularity by 1940 and was not frequently given in the later half of the 20th century; Audrey was the 173rd most common name for females in the United States in the 1990 census. Its popularity has again been on the rise since the 2000s, reaching rank 100 in 2002 and rank 41 in 2012. It was also ranked in the top 100 most common names for girls in France, Belgium, and Canada in the 2000s.[2]
People
- Audrey Assad (born 1983), American contemporary Christian musician
- Audrey Barcio (born 1978), American visual artist
- Audrey Brown (1913–2005), British athlete
- Audrey Cameron, polymer chemist
- Audrey Chapman (1899–1993), American actress
- Audrey De Montigny (born 1985), French-Canadian singer
- Audrey Dufeu-Schubert (born 1980), French politician
- Audrey Dwyer, Canadian actor and playwright
- Audrey Emery (1904–1971), American socialite and wife of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
- Audrey Fagan, Australian police officer
- Audrey Flack (born 1931), American artist
- Audrey Fleurot (born 1977), French actress
- Audrey Girouard, Canadian computer scientist and professor
- Audrey Gordon, Canadian politician
- Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), Belgian-born British actress and fashion model
- Audrey Marie Hilley (1933-1987), American murderer
- Audrey Hochberg (1933–2005), New York politician
- Audrey Evelyn Jones (1929–2014), teacher and women's right campaigner
- Audrey Kitching (born 1985), model, fashion designer, fashion blogger
- Audrey Landers (born 1956), American actress
- Audrey Lawson-Johnston (1915–2001), last survivor of the shipwreck Lusitania
- Audrey Linkenheld (born 1973), French politician
- Audrey Long (1922–2014), American actress
- Audrey Luna, American operatic soprano
- Audrey Malte, a name used to refer to Ethelreda Malte (died 1559), alleged illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII
- Audrey McLaughlin (born 1936), Canadian politician, former leader of the New Democratic Party
- Audrey Meadows (1922–1996), American actress
- Audrey Meaney (born 1931) British archaeologist
- Audrey Mestre (1974–2002), French athlete
- Audrey Morris (1928–2018), American jazz singer
- Audrey Munson (1891–1996), American model and actress
- Audrey Niffenegger (born 1963), American novelist
- Audrey Osborne, Duchess of Leeds, British aristocrat
- Audrey Patterson (1926–1996), American athlete
- Audrey Penn (born 1947) American author
- Audrey Richards (1899–1984), British anthropologist
- Audrey Riley, a cellist and string arranger based in the UK
- Audrey Tang (born 1981) Taiwanese software programmer
- Audrey Tautou (born 1976), French actress
- Audrey Terras (born 1942) American mathematician
- Audrey Totter, (1918–2013) American actress
- Audrey Wasilewski (born 1967) American voice actress
- Audrey Wells (1960–2018), American film director and screenwriter
- Audrey Williamson (1926–2010), British athlete
Fictional characters
- Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, a character in the BBC television sitcom To the Manor Born
- Audrey Fulquard, heroine of The Little Shop of Horrors, and her namesake "Audrey Jr." or "Audrey II"
- Audrey Gordon, played by Heidi Areana in the satirical Australian television cooking series Audrey's Kitchen
- Audrey Hanson, a character in the television series Heroes
- Audrey Horne, a character on the television series Twin Peaks
- Audrey Parker-Nichols, a character in the Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh
- Audrey Raines, a character in television series 24
- Audrey Reede, a character in the film Liar Liar
- Audrey Roberts, a character on the British soap opera Coronation Street
- Audrey Turfe, a character in Ben Jonson's A Tale of a Tub
- Audrey, a 1902 novel by Mary Johnston
- Audrey (1916 film), based on Mary Johnston's novel
- Audrey, a character in Shakespeare's As You Like It
- Little Audrey, a cartoon character who was mainly popular during the 1950s and 1960s
- Audrey Belrose, a dateable character in the dating simulation videogame Huniepop
- Audrey Sharma, a character in the 2012 Disney Channel film Radio Rebel, portrayed by Sarena Parmar
- Audrey Smith Bertha, a character on Harvey Girls Forever!
See also
- Audre Lorde (1934–1992), Caribbean-American writer
- Audre Trupin, birthname of Pinny Cooke (1923–2004), New York politician
- Æthelred
- Aldred
- Atomic Weapons Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield (AWDREY)
Notes
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