AndrévsAndreiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“André” and “Andrei” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,833
“André” frequency rank
#21,437
“Andrei” frequency rank
42270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature André Andrei
Definition A male given name from French or Portuguese, borrowed from the French and Portuguese form of Andrew. A transliteration of the Russian male given name Андре́й (Andréj), equivalent to Andrew.

Same sound, different letters: André vs Andrei

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

5 ch
André
6 ch
Andrei

Same sound, different spelling - André / Andrei

This is the hard kind. André and Andrei are pronounced identically (/ˈɑːndɹeɪ/) and both work as aname. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

André is recorded at frequency rank #20,833, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈɑːndɹeɪ/. Andrei is at rank #21,437, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈɑːndɹeɪ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42270, this pair ranks #250,759 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of André vs Andrei

Shared letters: adnr. Private to "André": é. Private to "Andrei": ei.

"André" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "Andrei" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Andreiadnrei · anddrei · anderi · andrie · andrrei · anndrei · anrdei · nadrei

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "André" for "Andrei" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (/ˈɑːndɹeɪ/), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "André" vs "Andrei" - which ranks higher?
"André" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,833 in our English list, against #21,437 for "Andrei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "André" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Andrei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,759 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "André" and "Andrei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ando vs André". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #250,759 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list