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Alfred is a masculine given name of English origin, a modern descendant of the Anglo-Saxon name Ælfræd (Old English pronunciation: [ˈæɫvræːd]), formed from the Germanic words ælf, meaning "elf", and ræd, meaning "counsel".[1][2] Its feminine form originating from Romance languages is Alfreda, and diminutives of Alfred include Al, Alf, Alfy, Alfie, Fred, and Freddy. After the 11th-century Norman Conquest, many variants of the name emerged, most of which were not carried to the modern day.[1] Today, Alfred is still in regular usage in a number of different regions, especially Great Britain, Africa, Scandinavia, and North America. It is one of the few Old English names that came into common use in Europe.[1] Its name day is the 3rd of January both in Norway and Sweden.[3]
![]() Statue in Wantage, England, of Alfred the Great, king of England from 871 to 899. | |
Gender | Masculine |
---|---|
Name day | January 3 (Sweden, Norway) |
Origin | |
Language(s) | English |
Word/name | Germanic |
Meaning | From the Anglo-Saxon name Ælfræd, formed from the Germanic words ælf, meaning "elf", and ræd, meaning "counsel" |
Other names | |
Nickname(s) | Al, Alf, Alfy, Alfie, Fred, Freddy |
Cognate(s) | Ælfræd (Anglo-Saxon) Alfreð (Icelandic) Alfréd (Hungarian, Slovakian) Alfred (Catalan) Alfredo (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish) Alfrēds (Latvian) Alfredas (Lithuanian) Alfredi (Albanian) Fredo (diminutive of Alfredo) |
Given name
editRoyalty and politicians
edit- Alfred the Great (848/849–899), 9th-century king of Wessex
- Alfred Aetheling (c. 1012–1036), son of King Ethelred II of England
- Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1844–1900), second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1874–1899), grandson of Queen Victoria and son of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Alfred A. Lama (1899–1984), Italian-American architect and politician
- Alfred Bansard des Bois (1848–1920), French politician
- Alfred Winsor Brown (1885–1938), governor of Guam
- Alfred Budge (1868–1951), justice of the Idaho Supreme Court
- Alfred Burvill (fl. 1920s), Australian politician
- Alfred Deakin (1856–1919), 2nd prime minister of Australia
- Alfred Joseph Richard de Soysa (1869–1939), Sri Lankan Sinhala landowner and member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon
- Alfred Dregger (1920–2002), German politician
- Alfred Gusenbauer (born 1960), Austrian politician
- Alfred Käärmann (1922–2010), Estonian freedom fighter
- Alfred John King (1859–1920), British politician
- Alfred Josoa (born 1943), Malagasy politician
- Alfred Kollie (1951–2020), Liberian politician
- Alf Landon (1887–1987), American politician
- Alfred Lecerf (1948–2019), Belgian politician
- Alfred Lerandeau (born 1939), American politician
- Alfred Mtsi (1950/1951–2020), South African politician
- Alfred Mpontshane (born 1952), South African politician
- Al Smith (1873–1944), American statesman
- Alfred Solstad (1884–1973), American farmer and politician
- Alfred von Schlieffen (1833–1913), German field marshal and strategist
- Alfred Thambiayah (1903–unknown), Sri Lankan Tamil businessman and member of parliament
Writers and philosophers
edit- Alfred Bester (1913–1987), American science fiction author
- Alfred de Musset (1810–1857), French romantic poet and playwright
- Alfred de Vigny (1797–1863), French romantic poet
- Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), French writer and founder of 'pataphysics
- Alfred Daniel Williams King (1930–1969), American minister and civil rights activist
- Alfred Richard Orage (1873–1934), British teacher, writer, editor, publisher
- Alfred Rosenberg (1893–1946), German Nazi theorist
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), British poet
- Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), English analytic philosopher and mathematician, co-author of Principia Mathematica
Athletes
edit- Alfred Aboya (born 1985), Cameroonian basketball player
- Alfred Bloch (1877–?), French Olympic footballer
- Alfred Butch Lee (born 1956), retired Puerto Rican basketball player
- Alfred Eissler (1896–1954), American football player
- Alfred Albert Joe de Re la Gardiur (1881–1941), Luxembourgish-American wrestler
- Alfred Guth (1908–1996), Austrian-born American water polo player, swimmer, and Olympic modern pentathlete
- Alf King (born 1941), Australian former footballer
- Alfred Kipketer (born 1996), Kenyan middle-distance runner and 2013 world youth champion
- Alfred Kivisaar (1953–2021), Estonian badminton player
- Alfred König (1913–1987), Austrian-Turkish Olympic sprinter
- Alfred Kuchevsky (1931–2000), Soviet professional ice hockey player
- Alfred McCullough (born 1989), American football player
- Alfred Morris (born 1988), American football player
- Alfred Neuland (1895–1966), Estonian weightlifter
- Alfred Puusaag (1897–1951), Estonian weightlifter
- Alf Ramsey (1920–1999), English football manager
- Alfred Schmidt (1898–1972), Estonian weightlifter
- Alfred Skrobisch (1913–1991), American fencer
- Alfred Stöhrmann (1882–1914), German football player
- Alfred Tetteh (born 1975), Ghanaian boxer
Businessmen
edit- Alfred O. Deshong (1837–1913), American businessman, philanthropist and art collector
- Alfred Fielding, inventor of Bubble Wrap
- Alfred Ford (born 1950), heir to the Ford family fortune
- Alfred S. Hart (1904–1979), American businessman and banker
- Alfred Hurst (1846–1912), English-born American politician and businessman
- Alfred Herrhausen (1930–1989), German banker
- Alfred Lindon (c. 1868–1948), businessman and art collector
- Alfred Lion (1908–1987), American record executive
- Alfred Peet (1920-2007), Dutch-American founder of Peet's Coffee
- Alfred Pisani (born 1939), Maltese businessman and hotelier
- Alfred Douglas Price (1860–1921), African American businessperson and community leader
- Alfred Sung (born 1948), Canadian fashion designer and businessman
Artists and entertainers
edit- Alfred Biolek (1934–2021), German entertainer and television producer
- Alfred Buckham (1879–1956), British photographer
- Alfred Gerald Caplin (1909–1979), American cartoonist and humorist better known as "Al Capp"
- Alfred Deller (1912–1979), English singer
- Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898–1995), German-born American photographer and photojournalist
- Alfred Edirimanne (1929–2000), Sri Lankan Sinhala cinema actor and politician
- Alfred Enoch (born 1988), British actor
- Alfred Hill, English comedian better known as "Benny Hill"
- Alfred Hirv (1880–1918), Estonian painter
- Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980), English film director
- Alfred Koerppen (1926–2022), German organist, composer, and teacher
- Alfred Leslie (1927–2023), American artist and filmmaker
- Alfred Lipka (1931–2010), German violist
- Alfred Molina (born 1953), British actor
- Alfred Momotenko Levitsky (born 1970), Russian-Dutch composer
- Alfred Rasser (1907–1977), Swiss comedian, radio personality, and actor
- Alfred Ryder (1916–1995), American film, radio, and television actor
- Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998), German-Soviet composer
- Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), American photographer and modern art promoter
- Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (born 1959), American parody–comedy musician
Military people
edit- Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935), French Jewish artillery officer wrongly accused of treason
- Alfred Jodl (1890–1946), German Wehrmacht general who was executed at the Nuremberg trials
- Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914), American naval strategist and historian
- Alfred C. Markley (1843–1926), American brigadier general
- Alfred K. Newman (1924–2019), United States Marine and Navajo code talker
- Alfred Saalwächter (1883–1945), German naval officer executed for war crimes
- Alfred Sully (1820-1879), U.S. Army Colonel and Union Army Brevet Brigadier General
- Alfred Trzebinski (1902–1946), German SS physician at several Nazi concentration camps executed for war crimes
- Alfred Zeidler (born 1902, date of death unknown), German SS concentration camp commandant
Scientists
edit- Alfred L. Elwyn (1804–1884), American physician and pioneer in the training and care of mentally disabled people
- Alfred Douglas Hardy (1870–1958), Australian botanist
- Alfred Hoche (1865–1943), German psychiatrist, eugenicist, used pseudonym Alred Erich for poetry publication
- Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956), American entomologist, zoologist, and human sexuality researcher
- Alfred Marshall (1842–1924), English economist
- Alfred Newton (1829–1907), English zoologist and ornithologist
- Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), Swedish chemist and engineer
- Alfred Ploetz (1860–1940), German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist
- Alfred Stillé (1813-1900), American physician
- Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann (1801–1877), German physiologist, anatomist, and philosopher
- Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist
- Alfred Wegener (1880–1930), German earth and weather scientist
Fictional characters
edit- Alfred, alchemist and playable character in Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
- Alfred, Sartan character from the novel Dragon Wing and other books of The Death Gate Cycle
- Alfred, nickname of the nature spirit Demonreach, a minor character in The Dresden Files
- Alfred, character in the video game series Fatal Fury
- Alfred, a playable character in the video game Fire Emblem Engage
- Alfred the Hot Water Bottle, from Australian children's television series Johnson and Friends
- Alfred, major character, a penguin, in the Franco-Belgian comic strip Zig et Puce
- Alfred Alembick, character from King Ottokar's Sceptre
- Alfred Doolittle, father of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady
- Alfred Hedgehog, main character of the French-Canadian animated TV series The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog
- Alfred F. Jones, personification of the United States of America and leader of the Allied Powers in the anime Hetalia by Hidekaz Himaruya
- Alfred J. Kwak, main character of the eponymous Dutch-Japanese anime television series
- Alfred E. Neuman, mascot and iconic cover boy of Mad magazine
- Alfred Pennyworth, butler to DC Comics superhero Batman
Other
edit- Alfred of Sareshel (12th–13th century), English translator
- Alfred of Sherborne (10th century), English bishop
- Alfred Francis (before 1909-after 1919), Welsh rugby player
- Sir Alfred Mehran (1946–2022), birth name Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Iranian refugee
- Alfred Packer (1842–1907), American cannibal
- Alfred Westou, (11th century), English priest and relic collector
- Alfred Worden (1932–2020), American astronaut, business executive, and author
Surname
edit- Mike Alfred, a South African poet
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (1991). "Alfred". Oxford Dictionary of First Names (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1. Retrieved 3 September 2022 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Campbell, Mike. "Meaning, origin and history of the name Alfred". Behind the Name. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
- ^ Nancy L. Coleman; Olav Veka (2010). A Handbook of Scandinavian Names. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 150. ISBN 9780299248338.