Anglo-Saxon Name Generator

Anglo-Saxon names were built from two Old English words joined together, and the meaning mattered less than the sound and the family connection. Æthel (noble), Ælf (elf), Ead (wealth), Wulf (wolf), Sige (victory), Os (god) and Leof (dear) were paired with second elements such as -red (counsel), -ric (ruler), -stan (stone), -wine (friend), -gifu (gift), -gyth (battle), -flæd (beauty) and -thryth (strength). So Æthelred is "noble counsel", Ælfgifu is "elf gift" and Wulfstan is "wolf stone". Families often repeated a first element across generations: Alfred the Great's children were Æthelflæd, Eadweard, Æthelgifu, Ælfthryth and Æthelweard.

There were no surnames. A person was known by a single name and, when needed, a byname: where they came from (Wulfstan of Worcester), who their father was (Harold Godwinson, or in older form Godwine Wulfnothing), a rank (ealdormann, thegn, gerefa) or a nickname such as Streona (the grasper) or Swearta (the dark). Women's names ended in -gifu, -burh, -wynn, -hild or -swith, and abbesses, queens and landholders appear in charters under them.

The list here mixes attested kings, saints and charter witnesses with plausible compounds built from the same elements, spelled with the æ ligature as in the manuscripts. Use a bare given name for most characters, and add a byname only when two people in the story would otherwise share one.