Andreas Family History

German and English: from the New Testament Greek name Andreas which gave rise to Andrew in English and vernacular derivatives in almost every other European language. Etymologically it is from Greek andreios ‘manly’ an adjective derivative of anēr (genitive andros) ‘man male’. This is a Greek translation of an unknown Aramaic original; it was the name of the first of Christ's disciples, the patron saint of both Scotland and Russia.

The Scottish surname Anderson is far more common than its Russian equivalent Andreev. The personal name was popular throughout Europe in various vernacular forms (including Italian Andrea, French André, Spanish Andrés, Scottish, North German, and Scandinavian Anders, Dutch Andries, Hungarian András, Czech Ondřej, Polish Andrzej and Jędrzej, and Russian Andrey).

Americanized or Germanized form of Slovenian Andrejaš: from an old vernacular form of the personal name Andraž (from Latin Andreas), which is a variant of Andrej; see Andrew.