Variant of Audrey, from Old English Æðelþryð meaning 'noble strength.'
Audry is a medieval variant spelling of Audrey, one of the more etymologically layered names in the English tradition. Its origin lies in the Old English name Æðelþryð, a compound of "æðel" (noble) and "þryð" (strength) — a formidable combination that Anglo-Saxon parents gave to daughters they intended to be extraordinary. The name was carried most famously by Saint Æthelthryth (also called Etheldreda or Audrey), a seventh-century Northumbrian queen who renounced her marriages, founded the great monastery at Ely, and became one of the most venerated saints in medieval England.
Her feast day's market at Ely became notorious for cheap lace necklaces — "Saint Audrey's laces" — which gave the English language the word "tawdry," a curious etymological descent from sanctity to shabbiness. The Audry spelling preserves something of the name's older, pre-standardized form, before the printing press and dictionary culture enforced uniform spellings. Medieval English was a language of creative orthography, and Audry, Awdrey, and Audrey coexisted comfortably.
This variant persisted into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in English parish records, particularly in rural areas, giving it an authentically antique flavor distinct from the more familiar Audrey. Audrey itself had a tremendous twentieth-century revival, owing largely to Audrey Hepburn, who transformed it into a byword for elegant minimalism and effortless grace. The Audry spelling sidesteps that specific cultural weight while retaining the name's deep medieval bones. It reads as both genuinely old and gently unconventional — a name for someone who prefers the original manuscript to the published edition.