AUDREY

Much altered form of the Old English girl's name Æðelþryð, derived from æðel ‘noble’ + þryð ‘strength’. This was the name of a 6th-century saint (normally known by the Latinized form of her name, Etheldreda), who was a particular favourite in the Middle Ages. According to tradition she died from a tumour of the neck, which she bore stoically as a divine punishment for her youthful delight in fine necklaces. The name went into a decline at the end of the Middle Ages, when it came to be considered vulgar, being associated with tawdry, that is, lace and other goods sold at fairs held in her name (the word deriving from a misdivision of Saint Audrey). Shakespeare bestowed it on Touchstone's comic sweetheart in As You Like It. In the 20th century, such associations largely forgotten, the name was revived, partly due in the 1950s and 60s to the popularity of the actress Audrey Hepburn (1929–93).