Audra is a Lithuanian word for "thunderstorm" — and independently a 20th-century American respelling of Audrey, from the Old English æðel (noble) + þryð (strength). Audra McDonald (born 1970) — American actress and soprano holding the record for the most competitive Tony Awards ever won by a performer (six). Only performer to win all four Tony acting categories (Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Play, Best Actress in a Play). Juilliard graduate (1993); National Medal of Arts (2015) from President Obama. Married actor Will Swenson in 2012. Starred as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014 Tony win).
Subject of countless Broadway profiles; her concert albums include collaborations with the New York Philharmonic.
Audra does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Audra reduce to 9, The Giver. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.