Amanda (given name)

Look up Amanda in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Amanda is a Latin female gerundive name meaning "having to be loved", "deserving to be loved" or simply "worthy of love".^[1]

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.^[2] In the United States, "Amanda" slowly became more prominent from the 1930s to the 1960s, ranking among the top 200 baby names.^[2]

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 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. 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

Notable people named Amanda include:

• Amanda Barrie (born 1935), British actress
• Amanda Bauer (born 1979), astronomer
• Amanda Beard (born 1981), American swimmer
• 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 Borden (born 1977), retired American gymnast
• Amanda Bynes (born 1986), American actress
• Amanda Byram (born 1973), Irish television presenter
• Amanda Carter (born 1964), Australian wheelchair basketball player
• Amanda Clement (1888–1971), American baseball umpire
• Amanda Coetzer (born 1971), South African former tennis player
• Amanda Crew (born 1986), Canadian actress
• Amanda Donohoe (born 1962), British actress
• Amanda Minnie Douglas (1831-1916), writer
• Amanda Evora (born 1984), American pair skater
• Amanda Forsyth (born 1966), Canadian cellist
• Amanda González (born 1979), Spanish former field hockey player
• Amanda Hearst (born 1984), American socialite, fashion model, and heiress to William Randolph Hearst's media empire
• Amanda Hendrick (born 1990), Scottish model
• Amanda Hesser (born 1972), American food writer, editor and cookbook author
• Amanda Holden (writer) (born 1948), British music writer and translator
• Amanda Holden (born 1971), British actress
• Amanda Hopmans (born 1976), Dutch former tennis player
• 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 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 Leigh Moore (born 1984), birthname of singer and actress Mandy Moore
• 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 Todd
• Amanda Simpson (born 1961), Senior Technical Adviser to the U.S. Department of Commerce and first openly transgender woman political appointee
• Amanda Somerville (born March 7, 1979), American singer-songwriter and vocal coach, known primarily for her work with many European symphonic metal bands.
• Amanda Swafford (born 1978), former contestant of America's Next Top Model, Cycle 3 and model
• Amanda Tapping (born 1965), English-born Canadian actress
• Amanda Vanstone (born 1952), former Australian politician, former ambassador to Italy
• Amanda Weir (born 1986), American swimmer

Fictional characters

• Amanda, in Colley Cibber's comedy play Love's Last Shift and its sequel by John Vanbrugh, The Relapse, both from 1696
• Amanda, Gabriella's sister in the Bert Diaries.
• Amanda, in the 2010 Nikita TV series
• Amanda (Highlander), an immortal in the Highlander universe
• Amanda Beckett, from the movie Can't Hardly Wait
• Amanda Bellows, a character on I Dream of Jeannie
• Amanda Benson, a character from the movie Swindle played by Ariana Grande
• Amanda Bentley, the title character of Candice F. Ransom's novel Amanda
• Amanda Carrington, on the television show Dynasty
• Amanda Clarke, birthname of the character Emily Thorne from the TV show Revenge
• Amanda Duff, a character from Tiny Toon Adventures
• Amanda Krueger, the mother of Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise
• Amanda Grayson, Spock's mother in the Star Trek series
• Amanda Martin, née Dillon, from the ABC soap opera All My Children
• Amanda Morgan (Dorsai), three characters in Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle future history
• Amanda Sefton, a witch in the Marvel Comics universe
• Amanda Tanen, from the television show Ugly Betty
• Amanda Toad, Slippy Toad's fiancée in the Star Fox series
• Amanda Vale, in the Australian TV series Home and Away
• Amanda Valenciano Libre, from the Metal Gear series
• Amanda Vaughn, from the TV show Good Christian Belles
• Amanda Waller, DC Comics villain
• Amanda Wingfield, from the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie
• Amanda Young, John Kramer's accomplice in the Saw franchise
• Amanda Rollins, in the TV Show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
• Amanda Woodward, in the TV Show "Melrose Place"

See also

• Amanda (disambiguation)
• Mandy (disambiguation)

Footnotes