Audrey is a feminine given name. It is rarely a masculine given name. Audrey is the Anglo-Norman form of the Anglo-Saxon name Æðelþryð, composed of the elements æðel "noble" and þryð "strength". The literal definition of the word is “noble strength” or “strength from nobility”. The Anglo-Norman form of the name was applied to Saint Audrey (died 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, e.g. Etheldred Benett (1776–1845) and Etheldred Browning (1869–1946).
In the 17th century, the name of Saint Audrey gave rise to the adjective tawdry "cheap and pretentious; cheaply adorned". The lace necklaces sold to pilgrims to Saint Audrey fell out of fashion in the 17th century, and so tawdry was reinterpreted as meaning cheap or vulgar. 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 latter 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.
Contents
People
Audrey Marie Anderson (born 1975), American actress and model
Audrey Assad (born 1983), American contemporary Christian musician
Audrey Amiss (1933–2013), British artist
Audrey Azoulay (born 1972), French civil servant and politician
Audrey Backeberg, American formerly missing person
Audrey Bates (1922–2001), Welsh international in four sports: table tennis, tennis, squash, and lacrosse
Audrey Bates (1928–2014), British-American computer programmer
Audrey Brown (athlete) (1913–2005), British Olympic sprinter
Audrey Brown (journalist), South African broadcast journalist
Audrey Alexandra Brown (1904–1998), Canadian poet
Audrey Cameron, polymer chemist working at the University of Edinburgh
Audrey Chapman (1899–1993), American actress
Audrey Crowley (born 2007), American para-alpine skier
Audrey De Montigny (born 1985), French-Canadian singer
Audrey Donnithorne (1922–2020), British missionary and political economist
Audrey Dufeu-Schubert (born 1980), French politician
Audrey Dwyer, Canadian actor and playwright
Audrey Emerton, Baroness Emerton (1935–2026), British nursing administrator and politician
Audrey Emery (1904–1971), American socialite and wife of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Audrey Fagan, Australian police officer
Audrey Flack (1931–2024), American artist
Audrey Fleurot (born 1977), French actress
Audrey Girouard, Canadian computer scientist and professor
Audrey Gordon, Canadian politician
Audrey Gregory, Jamaican healthcare administrator
Audrey Hannah (born 1982), German-Canadian presenter, singer-songwriter and ballet dancer
Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), Belgian-born British actress and fashion model
Audrey Marie Hilley (1933–1987), American murderer
Audrey Mika (born 2000), American singer and songwriter
Audrey Hochberg (1933–2005), New York politician
Audrey Evelyn Jones (1929–2014), British teacher and women's rights campaigner
Audrey Kennedy, Irish camogie player
Audrey Kitching (born 1985), American model, fashion designer, and fashion blogger
Audrey Landers (born 1956), American actress
Audrey Lawson-Johnston (1915–2001), last survivor of the shipwreck Lusitania
Audrey Linkenheld (born 1973), French politician
Audrey Long (1922–2014), American actress
Audrey Luna, American operatic soprano
Audrey McMahon (1898–1981), Federal Art Project, NY director
Audrey Maleka, South African politician
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 (1931–2021), British archaeologist
Audrey Mestre (1974–2002), French athlete
Audrey Morris (1928–2018), American jazz singer
Audrey Munson (1891–1996), American model and actress
Audrey Niffenegger (born 1963), American novelist
Audrey Nuna (born 1999), American singer
Audrey Ong Pei Ling (born 1980), Singaporean criminal and accomplice of British convicted killer Michael McCrea
Audrey Osborne, Duchess of Leeds, British aristocrat
Audrey Pascual (born 2004), Spanish para-alpine skier
Audrey Patterson (1926–1996), American athlete
Audrey Penn (born 1947), American author
Audrey Prime (1915–2001), British trade unionist
Audrey Richards (1899–1984), British anthropologist
Audrey Riley, English cellist and string arranger
Audrey Shin (born 2004), American figure skater
Audrey Spiry (born 1983), French animator, illustrator, and comic strip author
Audrey Stevens, American politician
Audrey Stevens Niyogi (1932–2010), American biochemist
Audrey Stuckes (1923–2006), British material scientist
Audrey Sutherland (1921–2015), American traveler, kayaker, teacher, and author
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 (1960–2018), American film director and screenwriter
Audrey Williamson (1926–2010), British athlete
Audrey Whitby, American actress
Audrey White (1927–2014), British model
Audrey Zubiri, Filipino politician
Fictional characters
Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, in the BBC television sitcom To the Manor Born
Audrey Hanson, in the television series Heroes
Audrey Horne, on the television series Twin Peaks
Audrey Raines, in television series 24
Audrey Roberts, on the British soap opera Coronation Street
Little Audrey, a cartoon character who was mainly popular during the 1950s and 1960s
