Audre
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Meaning
noble strength (respelling of Audrey); famously borne by poet and essayist Audre Lorde, who chose this spelling, liking the symmetry with 'Lorde'
The story
Audre is Audrey with the y left off, and the ancestry runs deep: Audrey descends from an Old English name meaning noble strength, borne by a seventh-century saint. But Audre, this exact spelling, belongs to one person first. Audre Lorde, born Audrey in New York in 1934, dropped the final letter as a child because she liked the look of the two matching e endings in Audre Lorde, an early act of self-definition from a writer who would build a career on them. She called herself 'black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,' and her essays and poems, gathered in books like Sister Outsider, became foundations of feminist thought. The name registered in US records for the first time in the 2020s: still genuinely rare, and carrying its own small lesson that a name can be authored, not just inherited.
How popular is Audre around the world?
In the United States, 31 babies were named Audre between 2020 and 2025.
Audre is on the official records of the United States and Brazil.
United States
1 in 700,000
In the United States, 31 babies were named Audre between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Audre has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Brazil
At the 2022 census, 78 people in Brazil were named Audre, ranked 49,053rd, with a median age of 38.
Among people named Audre living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
South Australia
last on record 1956
Audre is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Audre
People given the name Audre in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 2009. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Audre deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Audre 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 Audre fits with your family’s names and surname.
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