Andrews surname meaning

Andrews is primarily a patronymic: the English and southern British form means a family of Andrew. The given name comes from Greek Andreas, traditionally connected with “manly,” but that gloss belongs to Andrew, not the surname itself. Scottish and Irish lines can also reflect Gaelic Mac Aindreis or Mac Aindriú, while North American records absorbed cognate forms from several languages. Andrews, Andrew, and McAndrew therefore need not mark one shared medieval family. Parent’s name is the direct catalog type and high confidence for the main English reading; the extra streams explain why a spelling match alone cannot prove descent.