Amanda
Amanda is a Latin female gerundive name meaning "deserving to be loved," "worthy of love," or "loved very much by everyone." Its diminutive form includes Mandy, Manda and Amy.
The name "Amanda" first appeared in 1212 on a birth record from Warwickshire, England, and five centuries later the name was popularized by poets and playwrights. In the United States, "Amanda" slowly became more prominent from the 1930s to the 1960s, ranking among the top 200 baby names.
From 1976 to 1995, "Amanda" ranked in the ten most popular female baby names in the United States. The name was most popular from 1978 to 1992, when it ranked in the top 4. At its prime, in 1980, it was the second most popular. In 2009, "Amanda" ranked number 166. It was ranked among the top ten names given to girls born in Puerto Rico in 2009. The name is also currently popular in Sweden, where it ranked twentieth for girls born in 2009, down five places from the year 2008. It is also popular in Swedish-speaking families in Finland, where it ranked among the top ten names for girls born to ethnic Swedes.
People
- Amanda, pen-name of Esmé Wynne-Tyson, English actress and writer
- Amanda Abbington, British actress
- Amanda Adams, American author and archaeologist
- Amanda L. Aikens, American editor, philanthropist
- Amanda Austin, American painter and sculptor
- Mandy Barnett , American country music singer
- Amanda Barrie, British actress
- Amanda Bauer, American astronomer
- Amanda Bell, American mixed martial artist
- Amanda Beard, American swimmer
- Amanda Bearse, American actress, director and comedian, Marcy on Married...with Children
- Amanda Blake, American actress, Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke
- Amanda Borden, American gymnast
- Amanda Boxer, English actress
- Amanda Burton, British actress
- Amanda Busick, American sports reporter
- Amanda Bynes, American actress
- Amanda Byram, Irish television presenter
- Amanda Cajander, Finnish deaconess
- Amanda Carter, Australian wheelchair basketball player
- Mandy Chessell, British computer scientist
- Amanda Chetwynd, British mathematician and statistician
- Amanda Clapham, English actress
- Mandy Clemens, American former soccer player
- Amanda Clement, American baseball umpire
- Amanda Coetzer, South African tennis player
- Amanda Cooper, American mixed martial artist
- Amanda Crew, Canadian actress
- Amanda Donohoe, British actress
- Mandy Drennan, Australian former Paralympic swimmer
- Amanda Minnie Douglas, writer
- Amanda Ruter Dufour, poet
- Amanda Evora, American pair skater
- Amanda Folsom, American mathematician
- Amanda Forsyth, Canadian cellist
- Amanda González, Spanish field hockey player
- Mandy Hager, New Zealand children's book author
- Amanda Hale, British actress
- Amanda K. Hale, Canadian writer
- Amanda Bartlett Harris, American author and literary critic
- Amanda Hearst, American socialite, fashion model, and heiress to William Randolph Hearst
- Amanda Hendrick, Scottish model
- Amanda Hesser, American food writer, editor and cookbook author
- Amanda Holden , British music writer and translator
- Amanda Holden, British actress
- Amanda Hopmans, Dutch tennis player
- Mandy Johnstone, Australian politician
- Amanda Kelly, Scottish kickboxer and mixed martial artist
- Amanda Kerfstedt, Swedish novelist and playwright
- Amanda Kernell, Swedish, Southern Sami director and screenwriter
- Amanda Kessel, American ice hockey Olympic Gold Medalist
- Amanda Kimmel, actress, model, and animal rights activist
- Amanda Knox, American woman imprisoned in Italy for the murder of Meredith Kercher, later freed
- Amanda Lang, Canadian journalist and senior business correspondent for CBC News
- Amanda Lear, French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist
- Amanda Leduc, Canadian writer
- Amanda Lee , Hong Kong pop singer and actress
- Amanda Lind, Swedish politician
- Mandy Loots, South African former Olympic swimmer
- Amanda Marchant, one half of British reality TV twins Samanda
- Amanda H. Mercier, American judge
- Amanda Miguel, Argentinian singer
- Mandy Miller, British actress, child star of the 1952 film Mandy
- Mandy Moore, American singer-songwriter and actress
- Amanda Micheli, American filmmaker
- Amanda Nunes, Brazilian mixed martial artist
- Amanda Overmyer, American Idol contestant and singer
- Amanda Palmer, lead singer of the Dresden Dolls
- Amanda Peet, American actress
- Amanda Perez, American R&B singer
- Amanda Pilke, Finnish actress
- Amanda Plummer, American actress
- Amanda Rylander, Swedish actress
- Amanda Seales, American comedian, actress, DJ, recording artist and radio personality
- Amanda Seyfried, American actress
- Amanda Setton, American actress
- Amanda Schull, American actress and ballet dancer
- Amanda Simpson, technical adviser to the U.S. Department of Commerce and first openly transgender woman political appointee
- Amanda Smith, former slave
- Mandy Smith, British pop singer, model and actress
- Mandy Smith , New Zealand former Olympic field hockey player
- Amanda Somerville, American singer-songwriter and vocal coach
- Amanda Tapping, English-born Canadian actress
- Amanda Todd, Canadian teenager who committed suicide after being blackmailed
- Amanda Vanstone, Australian politician, ambassador to Italy
- Mandy Ventrice, American recording artist
- Amanda Wakeley, British fashion designer
- Amanda Weir, American swimmer
Fictional characters
- Amanda, in Colley Cibber's comedy play Love's Last Shift and its sequel by John Vanbrugh, The Relapse, both from 1696
- Amanda, Gabriella's sister in the Bert Diaries
- Amanda, in the 2010 Nikita TV series
- Amanda, an immortal in the Highlander universe
- Amanda Beckett, from the movie Can't Hardly Wait
- Amanda Bellows, a character on I Dream of Jeannie
- Amanda Benson, a character from the movie Swindle played by Ariana Grande
- Amanda Bentley, the title character of Candice F. Ransom's novel Amanda
- Amanda Brotzman, in the novels of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, as well as its television adaptation
- Amanda Carrington, on the television show Dynasty
- Amanda Clarke, birthname of the character Emily Thorne from the TV show Revenge
- Amanda De Santa, from 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V
- Amanda Duff, a character from Tiny Toon Adventures
- Amanda Grayson, Spock's mother in the Star Trek series
- Amanda Killman, a blonde-haired-braced character from Bunsen Is a Beast
- Amanda King, character from TV-show "Scarecrow and Mrs. King", played by Kate Jackson
- Amanda Krueger, the mother of Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise
- Amanda Martin, née Dillon, from the ABC soap opera All My Children
- Amanda Morgan, three characters in Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle future history
- Amanda Rollins, in the TV Show
- Amanda Sefton, a witch in the Marvel Comics universe
- Amanda Tanen, from the television show Ugly Betty
- Amanda the Panda, the mascot of Window Maker
- Amanda Toad, Slippy Toad's fiancée in the Star Fox series
- Amanda Vale, in the Australian TV series Home and Away
- Amanda Valenciano Libre, from the Metal Gear series
- Amanda Vaughn, from the TV show GCB
- Amanda Wingfield, from the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie
- Amanda Woodward, in the TV series Melrose Place
- Amanda Young, John Kramer's accomplice in the Saw franchise
- Amanda Zimm, in the TV series Ready or Not.
Footnotes