Amanda (given name)
Amanda is a Latin female gerundive name meaning "having to be loved," "deserving to be loved," or, simply, "worthy of love."
The name "Amanda" first appeared in 1212 on a birth record from Warwickshire, England, and five centuries later the name was popularized by poets and playwrights.[1]
In the United States, "Amanda" slowly became more prominent from the 1930s to the 1960s, ranking among the top 200 baby names.[2] It jumped into the top 10 in the mid-1970s, likely because of Barry Manilow's 1974 No. 1 hit song "Mandy," a nickname for Amanda.
From 1976 to 1995, "Amanda" ranked in the ten most popular female baby names in the United States. The name was most popular from 1978 to 1992, when it ranked in the top 4. At its prime, in 1980, it was the second most popular. In 2009, "Amanda" ranked number 166. It was still ranked among the top ten names given to girls born in Puerto Rico in 2009. The name is also currently popular in Sweden, where it ranked twentieth for girls born in 2009, down five places from 2008, when it was ranked fifteenth. It is also popular in Swedish-speaking families in Finland, where it ranked among the top ten names for girls born to ethnic Swedes.
People
Athletes
Actresses, singers and models
- Amanda Barrie (born 1935), British actress
- Amanda Bearse (born 1958), American actress, director and comedienne best known for playing Marcy on Married...with Children
- Amanda Blake (1929–1989), American actress who played Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke
- Amanda Bynes (born 1986), American actress
- Amanda Crew (born 1986), Canadian actress
- Amanda Donohoe (born 1962), British actress
- Amanda Hendrick (born 1990), Scottish model
- Amanda Holden (born 1971), British actress
- Amanda Lear (born 1939), French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist
- Amanda Lee (actress) (李蕙敏， born 1970), a pop singer and actress in Hong Kong
- Amanda Overmyer (born 1984), former American Idol contestant and singer
- Amanda Palmer (born 1976), lead singer of the Dresden Dolls
- Amanda Peet (born 1972), American actress
- Amanda Pilke (born 1990), Finnish actress
- Amanda Plummer (born 1957), American actress
- Amanda Seyfried (born 1985), American actress
- Amanda Swafford (born 1978), former contestant of America's Next Top Model, Cycle 3 and model
- Amanda Tapping (born 1965), English-born Canadian actress
Other
- Amanda Bowman (born 1959), British radio presenter
- Amanda Forsyth (born 1966), Canadian cellist
- Amanda Hearst (born 1984), American socialite, fashion model, and heiress to William Randolph Hearst's media empire
- Amanda Hesser (born 1972), American food writer, editor and cookbook author
- Amanda Knox (born 1987), American woman imprisoned in Italy for the murder of Meredith Kercher, later freed
- Amanda Lang (born 1970), Canadian journalist and senior business correspondent for CBC News
- Amanda Simpson (born 1961), Senior Technical Adviser to the U.S. Department of Commerce and first openly transgender woman political appointee
- Amanda Vanstone (born 1952), former Australian politician and current Ambassador to Italy
Fictional characters
See also