Audrey

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" (after a fair of St. Audrey where cheap lace was sold). 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]

List of people with the given name Audrey

• Audre Lorde (1934-1992), American poet, social theorist and activist
• Audrey Assad (born 1983), American contemporary Christian musician
• Audrey Brown (1913–2005), British athlete
• Audrey Chapman (1899-1993), American actress
• Audrey de Montigny (born 1985), French-Canadian singer
• Audrey Emery (1904–1971), American socialite and wife of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
• Audrey Flack (born 1931), American artist
• Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), actress and fashion model
• Audrey Hochberg (1933–2005), New York politician
• Audrey Kitching (born 1985), model, fashion designer, fashion blogger
• Audrey Landers (born 1956), American actress
• Audrey Lawson-Johnston (born 1915), last survivor of the shipwreck Lusitania
• Audrey Long (born 1922), American actress
• 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 Munson (1891–1996), American model and actress
• Audrey Niffenegger (born 1963), American novelist
• 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 (born 1960), American film director
• Audrey Williamson (born 1926), British athlete

Fictional characters

• Audrey Cheng, a character in the Power of Five novels
• Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, a character in 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 television series Heroes
• Audrey Horne, a character on the television series Twin Peaks
• 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 book by Mary Johnston, or the film of it made in 1916
• Audrey, a character in Shakespeare's As You Like It
• Little Audrey, a cartoon character who was mainly popular during the 1950s and 1960s.

See also

• Audre Lorde (1934–1992), Caribbean-American writer
• Audre Trupin, birthname of Pinny Cooke (1923–2004), New York politician
• Æthelred
• Aldred

Notes