Aubrey
A medieval personal name and surname, ultimately from a Norman-French form related to the old Germanic name Alberic/Albericus.
The #7,046 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,958 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname began as a Norman personal name, recorded in Latin forms such as Albericus and in French forms like Aubrey. Older sources also link it with the female name Albreda, suggesting that some surname forms may have been passed on from a medieval given name rather than from a place-name. The deeper roots are Germanic, with the name elements generally understood as meaning something like 'elf' plus 'power' or 'ruler.'
History
In England, Aubrey appears as a Norman import after the Conquest and is associated in early records with medieval bearers of the personal name, including the de Vere family tradition preserved in later pedigrees. It has long been used both as a given name and as a surname. Some 19th-century writers also speculated about a Saint Aubrey and aristocratic French origins, but those claims are best treated as traditional pedigree lore rather than firm evidence.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Aubrey has the unusual distinction of having been used historically as both a masculine and a feminine given name, which helped it generate multiple surname forms.
From the historical record
“Abreville. H.R. AUBREY. A Norman personal name, as Aubrey or Albericus de Vere. A pedigree of this famil}' dra\\Ti up by Vincent, Wind- sor Herald, temp. Elizabeth, commences with " Saint Aubrey, of the blood royal of France, came into England with William the Conqueror, anno lOGG, as the Chronicles of All Souls…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom