Audrey Family History
Audrey Name Meaning
English:: (of Norman origin): habitational name from Audrieu in Calvados France recorded as Aldreium in 1108. from the Middle English female personal name Aldrith which sometimes became Audrey by a 15th-century pronunciation change of /ald/ to /aud/. It derives from one of three Old English female personal names Æthelthrȳth ‘noble strength’ Ælfthrȳth ‘elf strength’ and Ealhthrȳth ‘temple strength’. The most popular was Æthelthrȳth commonly Latinized as Etheldreda and appearing in various Middle English forms such as Atheldrith(e) Aildrith Aldreth Etheldred and Eldrid(e). It was borne by a Christian saint Saint Etheldred (later known also as Saint Audrey) Queen of Northumbria daughter of Anna king of East Anglia. She was the founder and first abbess of the monastery at Ely in about 672 and her continuing cult after the Norman Conquest was probably responsible for the survival of the personal name well into the 14th century.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
