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 [ 3 syll. a-man-da, am-a-nda ] The girl name Amanda is pronounced ahMAENDah KEY. Amanda's origin is Latin, and its use, English, Finnish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Derived from amanda 'lovable' ; amare 'to love'. The male name Amandus does not seem to have been the source of Amanda. The female name appeared in the 17th century, probably under the influence of the name Miranda. It was first coined for a character in the play Love's Last Shift (1696) by the British dramatist Colley Cibber, and was well used in the 18th century for other fictional heroines, such as in the Sir John Vanbrugh play The Relapse (1696) and the Tobias Smollett novel Peregrine Pickle (1751). Noel Coward also named a character Amanda in his comedy Private Lives (1930), contributing to the popularity of the name in recent times. The pet form is well known from the Barry Manilow song, Mandy (1974). Amanda is the feminine equivalent of the Italian Amando. Forms of the name include the Spanish Amada, the English and French Amandine, the English Demanda, and the Hawaiian Henoheno. The short form Manda (English), the pet forms Amata (Spanish), Mandee (English), Mandi (English), Mandie (English), Mando (English), and Mandy (English), and the spelling variant Amandah (English) are other forms of Amanda. See also the related forms, the English Alanda and the English, German, and Italian Miranda. Amanda is popular as a baby girl name. The name grew in popularity from the 1930s up to the 1980s. At the height of its usage in 1987, 2.231% of baby girls were named Amanda. It was #3 in rank then. The baby name has seen a substantial drop in frequency since then. In 2008, it ranked at #138 with a usage of only 0.117%, but it was nevertheless the most popular within all girl names in its family. Amanda was used 18% more than the next ranked name, the English, German, and Italian Miranda, in 2008. The name Amanda has primarily been a girl name, although it has also been given to boys in the last century. In 1989, 289 times more girls than boys were given the name Amanda. Baby names that sound like Amanda include the English Amandah, the Spanish Amada, the Spanish, German, and Scandinavian Amata, the Spanish Aminda, the English and Italian Aminta, the English and Indian Amita, the English Amity, the Tamil Amutha, the English Anadia, the Armenian Anahid, the Indian Ananda, the Indian Anandi, the Indian Ananta, the Indian Anantha, the English and Spanish Anita, the Italian Annetta, the Greek Annthea, the English and German Anthea, the English Anthia, and the name Onida. Details of famous persons named Amanda: KEY: Pronunciation for Amanda: AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; D as in "dee (D.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"   |
