Andrea

Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew. The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (anēr), genitive ἀνδρός (andrós), that refers to man as opposed to woman (whereas man in the sense of human being is ἄνθρωπος, ánthropos). The original male Greek name, Andréas, 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). In the year 2006, it was the third most popular name in Italy with 3.1% of newborns. 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 also been used on occasion as a female name in Italy and in Spain, where it is considered the legitimate feminine form of Andrés/Andreo/Andreu (Andrew). Outside of Italy, the name is generally considered a female name. In Czech, Slovak, Polish, Slovenian, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Scandinavian languages and Spanish, Andrea is a feminine name. Masculine forms are Andrej, Ondřej, Andrzej, Anže, Andrew, Andreas, András, Andreo, Andrés, Anders, Andries or Andre. In Albanian Andrea is a masculine name; its native form is Ndrea. In Romansh Andrea is also a masculine name. In Italian, Andrea is a primarily masculine name. In Bulgarian Andrea (Андреа) 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 knitting needle in Romanian. Andrei is the masculine form. Andréia is the most common Portuguese spelling of this name, although Andréa is also used in Brazilian Portuguese.