Boy · Old English
Æthelred
Say it: ATH-el-red
Meaning
From Old English æthel 'noble' and ræd 'counsel, advice'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
A royal name in Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex; the nickname 'Unready' is a pun on the name, from unræd 'bad counsel'.
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: Ethelred
Famous bearers
- Æthelred the Unready, king of England
- Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Anglo-Saxon charters, chronicles and church records
- Royal and noble genealogies
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.