Andrea

Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide, cognate to Andreas and Andrew.

It is traditionally popular because, according to the Christian Bible, Saint Andrew was one of the earliest disciples of Jesus and one of the twelve Apostles.

Origin of the name

It derives from the Greek ἀνήρ (anēr), genitive ἀνδρός (andrós), that indicates the man as opposed to the woman (while man in the meaning of human being is ἄνθρωπος, ánthropos, ἀνθρώπου, anthrópou). The original male Greek name, Andréas, (directly etymologically related to andras/άνδρας, man/adult male, husband) represents the hypocoristic, with endearment functions, of male Greek names composed with the andr- prefix, like Androgeos (man of the earth), Androcles (man of glory), Andronikos (man of victory). The same root ἀνδρ-, andr- denoting the male gender is found e.g. in misandry (the hatred of the male sex), andrology (male physiology), androgens (male hormones) and polyandry (the practice of taking more than one husband at the same time).

In the year 2006, it was the third most popular name in Italy with 3.1% of newborns.^[1] It is one of the Italian male names ending in a, with others being Elia (Elias), Enea (Aeneas), Luca (Lucas), Mattia (Matthias), Nicola (Nicholas), Tobia (Tobias). In recent and past times it has been used as a female name also in Italy, not very often, and Spain, where it is considered the legitimate feminine form of Andrés/Andreu (Andrew). Outside of Italy, mostly on Anglo-Saxon cultures, the name is generally considered a female name.

Usage

• In Czech, Slovak, Polish, Slovenian, Dutch, English, German, Hungarian, Scandinavian languages and Spanish, Andrea is the feminine form of Andrew. Masculine forms are Andrej, Ondřej, Andrzej, Anže, Andrew, Andreas, András, Andreo, Andrés, Anders, Andries or Andre.
• In Albanian and Romansh Andrea is a masculine name, the equivalent of Andrew.
• In Italian, Andrea is a primarily^[2] masculine name.
• In Bulgarian Andrea is used as the feminine form of "Andrei".
• In Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, Andrea is a feminine name; Andreja can be used as female name, while Andrija, Andro and Andrej are masculine forms. The only exception is Istria, where Andrea is a male name.
• In Romania Andreea is a feminine name and it is written with an extra "e". However, the feminine variation Andrea is also used. Andrea as etymon means needle in Romanian. Andrei is the masculine form.
• Andréa is a Brazilian Portuguese form of Andrea also used in Portugal along with Andreia.
• In Dutch, Andrea is used as a female name, although the variant Andrée is found in French.
• In Basque Andrea and Andere exist as female names. Two etymons merge in the former: the most widespread form with a Greek root, 'man', and the Basque-Aquitanian ancient form "andere(a)", present-day "andere(a)" and "andre(a)", 'madam', 'lady' (used mainly as title, e.g. "Andramari", 'Lady/Virgin Mary'), as opposed to "jaun", 'lord'. In popular usage it can ultimately mean 'adult woman'.
• In Catalan Andrea is used as the feminine form of "Andreu".

Notable people

References

Sources

• Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (2004). "Natalità e fecondità della popolazione residente: caratteristiche e tendenze recenti" (PDF) (in Italian). p. 11.
• "Classical Greek Online Base Form Dictionary".