Alfred

Boy · Old English

Alfred

Say it: AL-fred

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From Old English Ælfræd, ælf 'elf' and ræd 'counsel'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Revived in the 19th century in honour of King Alfred.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1920s

In the United States

024618801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1928per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 243,749 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1928, about 1 in 177 boys
  • 246 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age700 to 1100
  2. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  3. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

EnglishAmericanAnglo-Saxon

The family of the name

GermanAlfred
ItalianAlfredo
SpanishAlfredo

Famous bearers

  • Alfred the Great, king of Wessex
  • Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 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
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today 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.