Boy · Old English
Ælfred
Say it: ALF-red
Meaning
From Old English ælf 'elf' and ræd 'counsel, advice'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Kept alive by the fame of Alfred the Great, it was revived strongly in the 19th century and was among the commonest English boys' names around 1900.
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
- The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age700 to 1100
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Alfred, Alured
| Italian | Alfredo |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Alfredo |
| Portuguese | Alfredo |
| French | Alfred |
| German | Alfred |
Famous bearers
- Alfred the Great, king of Wessex
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English poet
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Anglo-Saxon charters, chronicles and church records
- Royal and noble genealogies
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
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.