← Back to The High and Late Middle Ages
Girl · Old English
Ælfgifu
Say it: ALF-yih-voo
Meaning
From Old English ælf 'elf' and gifu 'gift'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
So common among high-status women that Emma of Normandy was given it as her English name on marrying Æthelred.
Its wave through time
No birth counts are recorded for this name in the records loaded here: it has been given to fewer than five babies a year, or not at all, since records began.
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Elfgiva, Aelfgifu
Famous bearers
- Ælfgifu of Northampton, first wife of Cnut
- St Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, wife of Edmund I
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Anglo-Saxon charters, chronicles and church records
- Royal and noble genealogies
- The Domesday Book (1086) source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.