Andrew

Meaning & origin

Few names have Andrew's combination of pedigree and durability: an apostle's name, a national saint's name, the name of three American presidents, and a fixture of English-speaking nurseries for the better part of a millennium. Its Greek root, andreios, "manly", gives it one of the more straightforward meanings in the classic canon.

In American data the name is a study in slow motion. Present since records began in 1880, Andrew crested in 1987, when it sat near the very top of the boys' chart, and has been easing downward since. The descent has been gentle: in 2025 it still ranked 73rd, with about 1 in every 380 newborn boys named Andrew. That trajectory, decades past its peak yet still comfortably in the top 100, is the signature of a true classic rather than a fashion casualty.

Its current strongholds are Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Vermont, small states where traditional choices hold on longest. Parents choosing Andrew today get the rare thing the 1987 cohort could not have: a familiar, unimpeachable classic that no longer fills classrooms, with Andy and Drew offering two very different personalities in one name.

Andrew descends from the Greek name Andreas, built on andreios, "manly" or "brave" (from anēr, "man"). Its standing in the Christian world comes from the apostle Andrew, brother of Simon Peter and by tradition the first-called of the disciples; he became the patron saint of Scotland, Greece, and Russia, which made the name a fixture in Scotland especially (hence St. Andrews and the saltire flag). The anglicized form Andrew has been in continuous English use since the Middle Ages and arrived in America with the earliest colonists. In United States records it has never been rare: present from 1880, it climbed through the twentieth century to a long run near the top of the charts, peaking in 1987.

Read more: Andrew on Wikipedia