Audrey
Encyclopedia
Audrey is a given name
. It is also the name of Saint Audrey or Saint Æthelthryt, a 7th century saint
. Audrey was the 51st most popular name for girls born in 2007 in the United States
and was the 173rd most common name for females in the United States in the 1990 census. It was also ranked in the top 100 most common names for girls in France, Belgium, and Canada in the past five years. The name has gained some popularity due to the fame of the actress Audrey Hepburn
.
The second element -d-rey can be rǣd, rēd "advice, opinion, happiness", so Æthelred > Aldred, Eldred in Middle-English is a masculine name. The phonetical shift Aldred > Audrey is typical for the Anglo-Norman language
, a Langue d'oïl, close related to Old French
.
The second element can be thruth (also spelled þryð) "strength", because Saint Æthelthrut(h) is called Saint Audrey too.
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
. It is also the name of Saint Audrey or Saint Æthelthryt, a 7th century saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
. Audrey was the 51st most popular name for girls born in 2007 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and was the 173rd most common name for females in the United States in the 1990 census. It was also ranked in the top 100 most common names for girls in France, Belgium, and Canada in the past five years. The name has gained some popularity due to the fame of the actress Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
.
Origin and Meaning
It has a double etymology : the first element Au-d- in both cases is ultimately from the Anglo-Saxon ethel (also spelled æðel) meaning "noble".The second element -d-rey can be rǣd, rēd "advice, opinion, happiness", so Æthelred > Aldred, Eldred in Middle-English is a masculine name. The phonetical shift Aldred > Audrey is typical for the Anglo-Norman language
Anglo-Norman language
Anglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....
, a Langue d'oïl, close related to Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
.
The second element can be thruth (also spelled þryð) "strength", because Saint Æthelthrut(h) is called Saint Audrey too.
Famous Audreys
Famous people named Audrey include:- Saint Audrey, Anglo-Saxon saint
- Audrey BitoniAudrey BitoniAudrey Bitoni is an American pornographic actress and model. She was nominated for the 2008 AVN Best New Starlet Award.-Biography:Audrey Bitoni was born on August 16, 1986 in Pasadena, California to an Italian/German/Spanish family...
, American porn star - Audrey BrownAudrey BrownAudrey Kathleen Kilner Brown MBE was a British athlete who mainly competed in the 100 metres.She was born in India and was the younger sister of Ralph Kilner Brown and older sister of Godfrey Brown....
(1913–2005), British athlete - Audrey de MontignyAudrey De MontignyAudrey De Montigny is a Canadian singer. She was born in Sainte-Julienne, Quebec on July 26, 1985. She rose to fame by placing fourth on the debut season of Canadian Idol.- Career :...
, French-Canadian singer - Audrey Erskine-Lindop (1920–1986), British author
- Audrey FlackAudrey FlackAudrey Flack is an American photorealist painter, printmaker, and sculptor.Flack studied fine arts in New York from 1948 to 1953. She earned a graduate degree and an honorary doctorate from Cooper Union in New York City, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Yale University. She studied art history at...
(* 1931), American artist - Audrey Faith Hill(nee Perry)Faith HillFaith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
(born 1967), American Country singer and model - Audrey HepburnAudrey HepburnAudrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
, actress and fashion model - Audrey HollanderAudrey HollanderAudrey Hollander is an American pornographic actress.Her first scene was in the film More Dirty Debutantes 268 with Ed Powers. As of December 2009, she has appeared in over 294 productions and is credited as co-director for the "Otto and Audrey Destroy the World" series of films...
, American porn actress - Audrey LandersAudrey LandersAudrey Landers is a German American actress and singer, who is probably best known for her role as Afton Cooper in the television drama series Dallas and her role as Val Clarke in the film version of A Chorus Line.- Early years :...
(* 1956), American actress - Audrey Lawson-Johnston (* 1915), last survivor of the shipwreck Lusitania
- Audrey LongAudrey LongAudrey Long is an American movie actress, who played supporting roles in films during the 1940s and 1950s....
, American actress - Audrey KitchingAudrey KitchingAudrey Lynn Kitching is an American blogger, model, and fashion designer. She has been declared simultaneously a "fashion forward female" and "fashion disaster" by Cosmopolitan, an "It Kid" and "princess of pop culture website Buzznet" by Nylon, "weekend role model" by Glamour, and a social media...
, model, fashion designer, fashion blogger - Audrey Malte, alleged illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII and a royal laundress
- Audrey McLaughlinAudrey McLaughlinAudrey McLaughlin, PC, OC was leader of Canada's New Democratic Party from 1989 to 1995. She was the first female leader of a political party with representation in the Canadian House of Commons, as well as the first federal political party leader to represent an electoral district in a Canadian...
, Canadian politician, former leader of the New Democratic Party - Audrey MeadowsAudrey MeadowsAudrey Meadows was an American actress best known for her role as the deadpan housewife Alice Kramden on the 1950s American television comedy The Honeymooners.-Early life:...
, American actress - Audrey MestreAudrey MestreAudrey Mestre was a French world record-setting freediver.- Early life :Born in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, to a family of snorkeling and scuba diving enthusiasts, at age two she was already swimming and by age thirteen was a seasoned scuba diver...
(1974–2002), French athlete - Audrey MunsonAudrey MunsonAudrey Munson was an American artist's model and film actress, known variously as "Miss Manhattan," "the Exposition Girl," and "American Venus." She was the model or inspiration for more than 15 statues in New York City and appeared in four silent films.-Life and career:Audrey Marie Munson was...
(1891–1996), American model and actress - Audrey NiffeneggerAudrey NiffeneggerAudrey Niffenegger is an American writer, artist and academic.-Writing:A film version of Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife , starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, was released in August 2009.She has also written a graphic novel, or "novel in pictures" as Niffenegger calls it,...
(* 1963), American novelist - Audrey PattersonAudrey PattersonAudrey Patterson is the first African-American woman to win an Olympic medal; she won a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.-Biography:...
(1926–1996), American athlete* - Audrey RichardsAudrey RichardsAudrey Isabel Richards , was a pioneering British woman social anthropologist who worked mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.Audrey was the second of four girls born to a well-connected family in London, England...
(1899–1984), British anthropologist - Audrey TangAudrey TangAudrey Tang is a Taiwanese free software programmer, who has been described as one of the "ten greats of Taiwanese computing."-Biography:...
, Taiwanese software programmer - Audrey TautouAudrey TautouAudrey Justine Tautou is a French model and film actress, best known for playing the title character in the award-winning 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, Sophie Neveu in the 2006 thriller The Da Vinci Code, Irène in Priceless and Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel...
, French actress - Audrey WasilewskiAudrey WasilewskiAudrey Wasilewski is an American actress and voice actress.-Life and career:Wasilewski's first role came in the 1994 Japanese animated film Heisei tanuki gassen pompoko, where she was one of the additional voices dubbed in English...
(1967- ) American voice actress - Audrey WellsAudrey WellsAudrey Wells is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer.Wells was born in San Francisco, California, and worked as a disc jockey at San Francisco jazz radio station KJAZ FM. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley and UCLA. She has written a number of successful screenplays and has directed...
, American film director - Audrey WilliamsonAudrey WilliamsonAudrey Doreen Swayne Williamson was a British athlete who competed mainly in the 200 metres....
(* 1926), British athlete - Audre Geraldine Lorde 1934-1992, Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist
Things
The name has also been given to several non-human entities, including:- Hurricane AudreyHurricane AudreyHurricane Audrey was the first major hurricane of the 1957 Atlantic hurricane season. Audrey was the only storm to reach Category 4 status in June. A powerful hurricane, Audrey caused catastrophic damage across eastern Texas and western Louisiana. It then affected the South Central United States as...
, a 1957 hurricane that devastated Louisiana - The 3Com Audrey3Com AudreyThe 3Com Ergo Audrey is a discontinued internet appliance from 3Com. It was released to the public on October 17, 2000 for USD499 as the first device in the company's "Ergo" initiative to hit the market...
, a short-lived Internet appliance - AudreyAudrey magazineAudrey is an English-language Asian American women's magazine. It is published between four and six times a year and features articles on Asian American issues and culture, as well as fashion and beauty. The first issue of the magazine hit newsstands in March 2003. The magazine was named after the...
, a US magazine for Asian American women - Audrey, a painting by Philip Richard MorrisPhilip Richard MorrisPhilip Richard Morris was an English painter of genre and maritime scenes , Holman Hunt-influenced religious paintings and portraits.-Life:Taken to London aged 14 by his iron-founder father to train for the family trade, Philip became...
Fiction
In fiction, the name has been used by:- Audrey, a character in Shakespeare's As You Like ItAs You Like ItAs You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
- Audrey, a 1902 book by Mary JohnstonMary JohnstonMary Johnston was an American novelist and women's rights advocate.The daughter of an American Civil War soldier who became a successful lawyer, Mary Johnston was born in the small town of Buchanan, Virginia. A small and frail girl, she was educated at home by family and tutors...
, or the film of it made in 1916 - Audrey Cheng, a character in the Power of Five novels
- Audrey Fulquard, heroine of The Little Shop of HorrorsThe Little Shop of HorrorsThe Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on a 1932...
, and her namesake "Audrey Jr." or "Audrey II" - Audrey Hanson, a character in television series Heroes
- Audrey HorneAudrey HorneAudrey Horne is a fictional character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. She was played by Sherilyn Fenn.Audrey is 18 years old during the action of the series...
, a character on the television series Twin Peaks - Audrey RobertsAudrey RobertsAudrey Roberts is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Sue Nicholls, the character first appeared during the episode aired on 16 April 1979....
, a character on the British soap opera Coronation Street - Audrey RainesAudrey RainesAudrey Louise Raines is a fictional character played by actress Kim Raver on the television show 24.-Characterization:Audrey was born in either Albany, New York or Providence, Rhode Island . Her mother died when she was nine...
, a character in television series 24 - Audrey Reede, a character in the film Liar LiarLiar LiarLiar Liar is a 1997 American comedy film written by Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur, directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Jim Carrey. Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical...
- Audrey Turfe, a character in Ben Jonson's A Tale of a TubA Tale of a Tub (play)A Tale of a Tub is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Ben Jonson. The last of his plays to be staged during his lifetime, A Tale of a Tub was performed in 1633 and published in 1640 in the second folio of Jonson's works.-History:...
Similar Names
- Æðelrēd
- Æthelred
- AldredAldred (disambiguation)Aldred was an English archbishop of the 11th century.Aldred may also refer to:* Aldred Lumley, 10th Earl of Scarbrough, British peer and soldier* Aldred of Lindisfarne, 10th-century Northumbrian bishop* Aldred the Scribe, 10th-century glossator...