Comments (Meaning / History Only)

Horrible! Means manly and sounds horrible Ahn-DREE-a. Anything with Dree in it is ugly Dree-nee- Rodney Andrea, Britney. Ugh Americans and their ugly names.
Ever heard of the etymological fallacy? This is the idea that the present meaning of a word should be the same as its historical meaning. The etymology is irrelevant. If you like a name, there is no reason you shouldn't use it. When you hear a name, is its original meaning the first thing you think of? I doubt it.
Andros means manly... NOT Andrea. Whilst Andrea is derived from this Greek word it is important to note that the two words are different. From what I gather, Andrea references what is perceived to be a manly quality. A very common view is that the specific quality Andrea references is that of 'courage' or 'bravery.' Such qualities are also associated with Andrew (also derived from Andros).
This name is Greek.
According to my sister (who knows her stuff) if the the root word (which in this case is "man" or "manly") is changed to a feminine form, then the meaning becomes feminine as well. It's the same case for the names Charles and Charlotte (Charles means man, or manly) - it's changed altogether because it becomes feminine diminutive.
Think about this if you still don't think this name means man:
In Greek, 'ginos' meant woman. From there comes the word misoginy - hate towards women, for example.
'Andros' is the Greek equivalent to 'man'. We have the word androginy - 'man-woman' literally, the word misoandria - hate towards men, and a long etcetera. Just search for information if you're still not sure.
Actually everybody, I was really curious a while back and went so deep into finding out how names could represent someone and being that my own name is Andrea, I discovered that the "ANDR" in Andrea means Strong! it doesn't mean manly or masculine. Just wanted to clear that up. Hah.
This name could also be used as a pet form of Alexandrea.
Etymologically, it still means "manly," even if it's made feminine. In fact, since the spelling Andrea is also used for males, there's even less of an argument.
From the Greek root "andro-" which means "man." So Andrea does not mean "womanly" just because it's feminine; it means "manly."
The name Andrea can also come from the feminine form of the Ancient Greek adjective for brave. The adjective, transliterated from Greek is Andreia. I know this, because my Ancient Greek teachers decided to tell everyone in the class what their names mean. This also happens to be my own name.
It means "Feminine Grace" or "Ideal Woman".
Even if Andrea is used as a female name, it still means man, not "feminine grace" or something like that. That would be Gynokala or something like that.

Comments are left by users of this website. They are not checked for accuracy.

Add a Comment