Meaning: Its source is amanda, amandus, a Latin name meaning "One that must be loved, lovable."

Narrative: The Latin male name Amandus, shared by a number of early Christian saints, may or may not be related to the modern girl's name Amanda.

Amanda first appears on an isolated 1212 birth record from Warwickshire, England. The name came into common use, however, only after its appearance in the works of 17th-century playwrights Colley Cibber and John Vanbrugh.

Some authorities feel the dramatists created Amanda as a feminine version of Amandus. Others believe they were simply reworking Shakespeare's 16th-century theatrical invention Miranda, and were not aware of either the ancient male name or the mysterious 13th-century girl.