Aubrey
Gender | feminine or masculine |
---|---|
Language(s) | French |
Origin | |
Meaning | leader of elves |
Other names | |
Variant form(s) | Aubree, Aubrie |
Aubrey is an English given name. It is most commonly a female name, although historically its use has been masculine. The name is a Norman French derivation of the Germanic given name Alberic, which consists of the elements alf "elf" and ric "power", with the meaning of "Fair Ruler of the Little People."[1] Before the Norman conquest, the Anglo-Saxons used the corresponding variant Ælf-rīc (see Ælfric).
An early female form is recorded as Aubrée and does not share the same etymology. It is instead derived from the Germanic Albereda or Alberada. It can be found in certain genealogies of the noble Norman families (See f. e. Aubrey of Buonalbergo).
The name is traditionally male, but is more commonly used as a feminine name in the United States. It was the 20th most popular name given to girls born in the United States in 2014.[2] The variants Aubree and Aubrie were the 61st most and 428th most popular given names for girls respectively. It was last ranked among the top 1,000 most common names for boys in the United States in 2002. It was the 479th most common name for all males in the United States in the 1990 census.[3]
People
Surname
- Andrew Aubrey, Lord Mayor of London in 1339, 1340, and 1351
- Emlyn Aubrey (born 1964), American professional golfer
- James Thomas Aubrey, Jr. (1918–1994), American television and film executive; president of the CBS television network during the early 1960s
- John Aubrey (1626–1697), archaeologist, antiquary and author
- Juliet Aubrey (born 1969), English actress
- Sam Aubrey (1922–2008), former basketball player and coach of Oklahoma State University
Given name
Eleventh through thirteen centuries
- Aubrey de Coucy, Earl of Northumbria from 1080 to about 1086
- Aubrey de Troisfontaines (died c. 1250), French chronicler of the 13th century
- Aubrey de Vere I (died c. 1110), 11th-century Anglo-Norman knight
- Aubrey de Vere II (c. 1080–1141), 12th-century Lord Great Chamberlain of England
- Aubrey de Vere III (c. 1115–1194), first Earl of Oxford
- Aubrey de Vere IV (c. 1170–1214), second Earl of Oxford
- Aubrey of Buonalbergo (c. 1030–1122), first wife of Robert Guiscard
Modern era
- Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898), English artist, illustrator, and author
- Aubrey Dollar (born 1980), American actress
- Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban (1915–2002), birth name of Israeli diplomat Abba Eban
- Aubrey Drake Graham (born 1986), (stage name Drake ), Canadian rapper and actor
- Aubrey de Grey (born 1963), biomedical gerontologist
- Aubrey Huff (born 1976), American baseball player
- Aubrey Lyles (1883–1932), African American performer and lyricist with F. E. Miller as "Miller and Lyles"
- Aubrey Manning (born 1930), English zoologist and broadcaster
- Aubrey McClendon (born 1959) American businessman, oil and natural gas pioneer
- Aubrey Morris (born 1926), English actor
- Aubrey Newman (1904–1994), British historian and professor
- Aubrey O'Day (born 1984), American singer
- Aubrey Peeples (born 1993), American actress and singer
- Aubrey Plaza (born 1984), American actress
- Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902), Irish poet
- Aubrey Woods (1928-2013), British actor
- Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (born 2007), American actress best known for her role on Modern Family
Fictional characters
- Jack Aubrey, one of the protagonists from Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series.
- Aubrey Valentine, in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders.
- Aubrey, the principal character of the 1980 eponymous ITV cartoon series Aubrey.
- Aubrey, a main vampire in the novel Demon in My View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.
- Aubrey James, the antagonist of Stroker Ace, a 1983 action comedy film.
- Aubrey, the narrator and main character of The Vampyre by John Polidori.
- Aubrey Posen, one of the main characters in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect.
- Aubrey Aubergine, one of the Munch Bunch.
- Aubrey deLint, a character from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.