Andrea

Andrea sits at a rare crossroads, a man's name in Italy where Botticelli, Palladio, and Bocelli wear it, and a woman's name in English since the seventeenth century. The root is Greek, andreios, "manly" or "brave," though the sound has long since softened past any single reading. In the U.S. Andrea is almost always feminine, currently at rank 185, pronounced variably AN-dree-uh or on-DRAY-uh depending on household. Three syllables, open and fluent, with the built-in nicknames Andie and Drea. Cosmopolitan without trying, a name that travels well and carries a little Italian warmth wherever it lands.