Andrea
Meaning
brave (from Greek andreios, 'manly, courageous'); a feminine classic across the Spanish-speaking world and one of the Philippines' most beloved girls' names
Goes by Andy
The story
Andrea changes gender when it crosses a language border. In Italian it is the masculine form of Andreas, the family that gives English Andrew. Across English, German, Spanish, Czech, Scandinavian, and several other traditions, Andrea is established as feminine. The shared root is Greek andreios, traditionally brave or manly, but the same spelling does not perform the same social role everywhere. This page's US curve is overwhelmingly the feminine American story. It rises from a quiet early line through the middle twentieth century, reaches a long plateau from the 1980s into the 2010s, and eases in the 2020s. That curve should not erase the Italian masculine name, just as Italian use should not overwrite the feminine Andrea known across the Americas and Europe. Andrea is a useful reminder that gender belongs to a name's living language and community, not permanently to its letters.
Andrea around the world
One shared root links 9 names across 6 languages.
Shared root: from Greek Andreas, tied to andros "man, manly"; the apostle's name in a dozen national dresses
The constellation
More branches
Andrea in song
Andrea
Bad Bunny featuring Buscabulla (2022)
A tender, sober track from Un Verano Sin Ti, the biggest album of 2022, portraying a Puerto Rican woman who wants only to be respected and left to live on her own terms.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Andrea peaked in the 1980s and the 2010s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
160,908 people · the #208 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,263 · median age 45
Among people named Andrea living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1970s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 276 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Andrea
Most people given the name Andrea in the United States were born between 1960 and 1999. The Andrea you meet today is most often in her 30s or 40s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Andrea deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Andrea truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Andrea fits with your family’s names and surname.
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