Old English Name Generator

Names from Anglo-Saxon England to the Victorian parish register

Real-World Names & CulturesPart of: real-world name generators500 names

0 of 500 seen

This or that?

7 picks, 1 winner

Tap the name you like more.

Tap a name to copy it. The arrows swap one name.

Or browse all 500 names, A to Z

Generate old English names with real roots: Anglo-Saxon given names like Ælfred and Eadgyth, medieval and Tudor gentry, Puritan virtue names and Victorian-era classics, each paired with an authentic English surname for novels, family sagas and historical games.

About Old English names

"Old English" means two different things, and this generator covers both. Strictly, Old English is the Anglo-Saxon language spoken in England before 1100, and its names were compounds of two meaningful elements: Ælf (elf) + red (counsel) gives Ælfred, Ead (wealth) + gyth (battle) gives Eadgyth, Wulf + stan gives Wulfstan. Those people had no surnames, so they appear here either bare or with a byname such as Leofric of Lichfield or Hereward the Wake. Many of these names survived in worn-down forms that still read as old-fashioned English: Alfred, Edith, Edmund, Audrey (from Æthelthryth), Mildred, Wilfred, Godric and Harold.

The looser sense, the names of old England, runs from the Norman and medieval gentry (Piers, Fulke, Hawise, Amice, Idonea) through Tudor households (Thomasina, Humphrey, Ursula), Puritan virtue names (Temperance, Obadiah, Mercy) and the Victorian and Edwardian registers that gave us Bartholomew, Prudence, Percival and Gladys. Each is paired with a surname that actually arose in England: place names like Ashworth and Wakefield, trades like Wainwright and Fletcher, and nicknames like Lightfoot and Fairweather.

To place a character in a century, match the given-name layer to the period and keep surnames from the same region, since a Yorkshire Ramsbottom and a Cornish Tregenza would rarely meet before the railways.

How to choose Old English names

  • Decide which 'old English' you need first: pre-1066 Anglo-Saxon (Ælfgifu, Wulfstan, no surname) or old-fashioned England (Bartholomew Whitcombe, Prudence Ashgrove). Mixing the two in one family looks like a mistake.
  • Use the surname to signal region and class: -thwaite, -by and -bottom surnames are northern; Tre-, Pol- and Pen- are Cornish; Norman-French surnames like Beauchamp, Devereux and Fitzalan suit landed gentry.
  • Anglo-Saxon names can be spelled three ways: with æ (Ælfred), with ae (Aelfred) or modernised (Alfred). Pick one spelling system per story and keep it consistent.
  • Puritan names (Temperance, Obadiah, Mercy, Hephzibah) belong to roughly 1580 to 1700; Percival, Algernon, Gladys and Cyril feel Victorian or Edwardian. A wrong-century name is the quickest way to break immersion.
  • For a large cast, reuse a first-name element within one family (Ead-, Ælf-, Wulf-) the way Anglo-Saxon dynasties did, or repeat a surname across generations in a later-period saga.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Old English names and Anglo-Saxon names?

They overlap almost entirely. Old English is the language of the Anglo-Saxons, so Ælfred, Eadgyth and Wulfstan are both Old English and Anglo-Saxon names. This generator also includes later English names that people describe as 'old English' in everyday speech, such as Bartholomew, Prudence and Winifred, paired with period surnames.

Did Old English people have surnames?

Not before the Norman Conquest. An Anglo-Saxon was known by one name plus a byname if needed: a home (Oswald of Worcester), a father (Harold Godwinson) or a nickname (Eadric the Wild). Hereditary surnames like Ashworth, Fletcher and Whitlock developed between about 1100 and 1400, which is why the later names here carry them.

Which modern names come from Old English?

Alfred, Edward, Edmund, Edgar, Edwin, Harold, Oswald, Wilfred, Godric, Cuthbert, Dunstan and Egbert for men; Edith, Audrey, Mildred, Hilda, Ethel, Winifred (partly Welsh), Elfreda and Rowena for women. Surnames of Old English origin include Ashworth, Wakefield, Whitlock, Hardcastle and Fairweather.

How do I pronounce the Æ in names like Ælfred?

Æ, called ash, sounds like the a in 'cat', so Ælfred is roughly AL-fred and Æthelred is ATH-el-red. The 'c' before e or i was often a ch sound (Cyne- is roughly 'kün-' but Ceol- is 'chol-'), and every written vowel was pronounced, so Eadgyth is EH-ad-yith rather than Edith.

Related generators

More like this

Browse category

All 500 Old English names

This is the complete list the generator above draws its random batches from, sorted A to Z and grouped by first letter.

Plain text, one name per line.

A: 69 names

  • Aaron Thornycroft
  • Abel Crowhurst
  • Abigail Saltonstall
  • Absalom Headley
  • Ada Lorimer
  • Aelfgifu Hornby
  • Aelfhild Cowper
  • Aelfric Coldwell
  • Aelfstan Beresford
  • Aelfwyn Dunmore
  • Aethelflaed Morley
  • Aethelred Croft
  • Aethelwyn Brocklebank
  • Agatha Wimpole
  • Agnes Tattersall
  • Alban Dunholme
  • Albert Snowden
  • Aldith Sheppard
  • Aldous Pemberton
  • Aldred Hawksworth
  • Aldwyn Heathcote
  • Alfgar Rudd
  • Ælfgifu of Winchester
  • Ælfheah of Canterbury
  • Alfred Burridge
  • Ælfred of Wessex
  • Alfred Whitlock
  • Ælfric the Grammarian
  • Ælfthryth of Devon
  • Ælfwaru Tredgold
  • Ælfwine of Malmesbury
  • Alfwold Brightwell
  • Algernon Postlethwaite
  • Alianore Babington

A, continued

  • Alianore Sherborne
  • Alice Boleyn
  • Alice Chaworth
  • Alric Sedgwick
  • Alwin Redfern
  • Amabel Poyntz
  • Ambrose Kettering
  • Ambrose Peascod
  • Amelia Speedwell
  • Amice Brandling
  • Amice Copeland
  • Amos Shillingford
  • Ankaret Bolebec
  • Ann Pargiter
  • Anne Stukeley
  • Anne Throckmorton
  • Anthony Thwaites
  • Arabella Goodenough
  • Araminta Fothergill
  • Archibald Spooner
  • Arthur Stoneham
  • Æthelberht of Kent
  • Æthelflæd of Mercia
  • Æthelred Unræd
  • Athelstan Gotobed
  • Æthelstan Rædwald
  • Athelstan Rigby
  • Æthelthryth of Ely
  • Æthelwine Scarisbrick
  • Æthelwold Eadwulfing
  • Audrey Fairweather
  • Augustus Beamish
  • Avelina Fitzwarin
  • Avice Bradshaw
  • Avice Tregarthen

B: 24 names

  • Baldric Hollinshead
  • Baldwin Fauconberg
  • Barnabas Hornblower
  • Barnaby Huxtable
  • Bartholomew Whitcombe
  • Basil Keswick
  • Beatrice Thistlethwaite
  • Beatrix Hollowell
  • Bedivere Crouch
  • Benedict Halloran
  • Benjamin Catchpole
  • Beornred Threlfall
  • Beornwulf Kemble
  • Berengaria Hawtree
  • Bertram Hollis
  • Bertram Quilliam
  • Bertram Wilberforce
  • Beryl Wansford
  • Birinus Dorchester
  • Botolph Sturry
  • Bridget Tresham
  • Brihtric Wardle
  • Brithwen Oakes
  • Byrhtnoth Ealdorman

C: 27 names

  • Caleb Brightwater
  • Cecil Arbuthnot
  • Cecilia Nettleship
  • Cecily Bramhall
  • Cedric Quartermain
  • Cedric Waverley
  • Cenric Whitby
  • Ceolred Garside
  • Charity Wheelwright
  • Cicely Neville
  • Clarence Ollerenshaw
  • Clementine Ashford
  • Clifford Mayhew
  • Constance Wetherby
  • Cordelia Farthing
  • Cordelia Pennyfeather
  • Cornelius Bagshaw
  • Cuthbert Ainsley
  • Cuthbert Aldridge
  • Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
  • Cwenhild Brereton
  • Cwenhild Sparrowhawk
  • Cyneburh of Castor
  • Cynewise Ashplant
  • Cynewulf the Poet
  • Cynric Beckett
  • Cyril Hammersley

D: 13 names

  • Damaris Lilburn
  • Daniel Wyatt
  • Deborah Fairhurst
  • Dinah Pendlebury
  • Dorcas Hawtrey
  • Doris Hargrave
  • Dorothea Swinburne
  • Dorothy Fennimore
  • Dorothy Poulett
  • Drogo Fenwick
  • Drogo Peverell
  • Dunstan Everly
  • Dunstan of Glastonbury

E: 77 names

  • Eadburga Fairclough
  • Eadburh of Thanet
  • Eadgifu of Kent
  • Eadgyth Godwinesdohtor
  • Eadgyth Ravenscroft
  • Eadhild Marchant
  • Eadmund Ironside
  • Eadric Selby
  • Eadric the Wild
  • Eadwacer Mottram
  • Eadwig Barnaby
  • Eadwine the Thegn
  • Eadwulf Trent
  • Ealdgyth Swanneck
  • Ealdgyth Wentworth
  • Ealdhelm Pilkington
  • Ealdred Boxall
  • Ealdwine Calloway
  • Ealhswith Marsden
  • Ealhswith of Mercia
  • Eanfled Ripon
  • Eanswith Tisbury
  • Ebba Coldingham
  • Ebenezer Crabtree
  • Ecgberht Brihtwulfing
  • Ecgbert Wolcott
  • Edburga Weyland
  • Edeline Brackenbury
  • Edeva Crossley
  • Edeva Haythornthwaite
  • Edgar Holloway
  • Edith Hardcastle
  • Edith Pargeter
  • Edith Stroud
  • Edmund Tallis
  • Edmund Thornbury
  • Edna Tunstall
  • Edric Longbottom

E, continued

  • Edward Rashleigh
  • Edwina Cottrell
  • Edwy Northcott
  • Egbert Harcourt
  • Eglantine Muswell
  • Elaine Ashwell
  • Elayne Gosforth
  • Eldred Barrowcliff
  • Eleanor Gresham
  • Eleanor Lisle
  • Elena Beauchamp
  • Elfgiva Pendle
  • Elfreda Marlow
  • Elfrida Whitmore
  • Elias Rowntree
  • Elizabeth Fiennes
  • Elizabeth Swynford
  • Elsie Marchmont
  • Elspeth Ainsworth
  • Elswith Beecham
  • Elswyth Chadwick
  • Emma Cressy
  • Enid Lanchester
  • Enid Stanbury
  • Enoch Hemingway
  • Eormenhild Dacre
  • Erkenwald Beverley
  • Ermengard Pickering
  • Ernest Pennington
  • Esther Wolstenholme
  • Ethel Brightmore
  • Ethelburga Frost
  • Ethelinda Lockwood
  • Euphemia Cleverley
  • Eustace Belvoir
  • Everard Pettifer
  • Everild Stowe
  • Ezekiel Blount
  • Ezra Fallowfield

F: 11 names

  • Felicity Hartshorn
  • Fitzwilliam Darlow
  • Florence Birtwistle
  • Frances Brabazon
  • Francis Woodvile
  • Frederick Wyke
  • Frideswide Milton
  • Frithuswith Chantry
  • Fulcher Kendall
  • Fulke Haldane
  • Fulke Mortlake

G: 28 names

  • Galahad Pinnock
  • Gawain Tolhurst
  • George Lumsden
  • Georgiana Lisle
  • Gideon Shelley
  • Gilbert Fastolf
  • Gilbert Rowbotham
  • Gilbert Stavely
  • Giles Paulet
  • Gladys Twyford
  • Goda Middleham
  • Godeliva Merryweather
  • Godfrey Ashdown
  • Godfrey Ellwood
  • Godfrey Lindley
  • Godfrey Lovell
  • Godgifu the Fair
  • Godiva Blackwood
  • Godleofu Saxby
  • Godric Bramley
  • Godwin Faraday
  • Godwine of Ely
  • Grace Cobham
  • Grimbald Tenby
  • Guinevere Hadleigh
  • Guthlac Hereford
  • Guy Fitzalan
  • Gwendolen Featherstone

H: 29 names

  • Hamelin Gorges
  • Hamon Brocas
  • Hamon Sedgefield
  • Hannah Bramwell
  • Harold Kenwood
  • Harold Oakenshaw
  • Harriet Brownlow
  • Harriet Cholmondeley
  • Hawise Musgrave
  • Hawise Strangeways
  • Henrietta Marchbanks
  • Henry Carew
  • Hephzibah Stanyon
  • Herbert Quantock
  • Hereward Oakley
  • Hereward the Wake
  • Hester Worthington
  • Hild of Whitby
  • Hild Ormesby
  • Hilda Merriman
  • Hilda Wakefield
  • Hildegyth Draycott
  • Honora Linwood
  • Horace Pettigrew
  • Horatio Wentworth
  • Hrothgar Kimber
  • Hugh Ramsbury
  • Humphrey Bagot
  • Humphrey Stafford

I: 8 names

  • Idonea Fitzherbert
  • Idonea Waddilove
  • Ignatius Fernsby
  • Isaac Hazelgrove
  • Isabel Ferrers
  • Isolde Brambleby
  • Isolde Wendover
  • Ivy Ledbetter

J: 21 names

  • Jacob Fearnley
  • Jane Bourchier
  • Jane Hungerford
  • Jasper Ambrose
  • Jemima Stubbs
  • Jeremiah Fairfax
  • Jeremiah Rudge
  • Jerome Bassingbourne
  • Jerusha Pickwick
  • Joan Pakenham
  • Joanna Thrupp
  • Jonas Applewhite
  • Jonathan Loxley
  • Jordan Tilney
  • Joshua Plowright
  • Josiah Harrowgate
  • Josiah Marwood
  • Joyce Peckham
  • Judith Sacheverell
  • Juliana Fitzpayne
  • Juliana Tyrwhitt

K: 2 names

  • Katherine Scrope
  • Keziah Lightfoot

L: 26 names

  • Lancelot Blakeney
  • Lavinia Sidebottom
  • Lawrence Bewick
  • Lawrence Cheyney
  • Leah Oddingley
  • Leofflæd Wetherell
  • Leofgifu Ceorlswif
  • Leofgifu Sumner
  • Leofric of Lichfield
  • Leofric Wainwright
  • Leofstan Paddock
  • Leofwaru Gaunt
  • Leofwin Hatherley
  • Leonard Strickland
  • Leticia Cavendish
  • Lettice Haverstock
  • Lettice Norreys
  • Levi Kettleburgh
  • Lilian Brixham
  • Linus Ravenhill
  • Lionel Bickerstaff
  • Lionel Sandbach
  • Lucius Falkner
  • Lucy Harington
  • Lydia Warboys
  • Lynette Hawkhurst

M: 28 names

  • Mabel Lumley
  • Mabel Rookery
  • Margaret Tyndall
  • Margery Pershore
  • Marianne Wycliffe
  • Marigold Cresswell
  • Marjorie Whitgift
  • Martha Crookshank
  • Mary Alderman
  • Mary Coningsby
  • Matilda Sorrell
  • Matthew Hoby
  • Matthias Sowden
  • Maud Fanshawe
  • Mehitabel Goodwin
  • Mercy Nightingale
  • Micah Dorrington
  • Mildburg Tanner
  • Mildgyth Crowland
  • Mildred Ashworth
  • Mildreth Ogden
  • Mildrith Halfpenny
  • Mildrith Spenlow
  • Miles Brightling
  • Millicent Thorne
  • Miriam Cartmel
  • Mortimer Haddock
  • Muriel Sowerbutts

N: 7 names

  • Nathaniel Winslow
  • Nehemiah Brailsford
  • Nellie Oakhurst
  • Nicholas Grimshaw
  • Nicholas Wadham
  • Noah Thrussington
  • Norman Fairley

O: 20 names

  • Obadiah Threadgold
  • Odo Bracegirdle
  • Odo Greystoke
  • Olive Fernbank
  • Oliver Farthingale
  • Oliver Pym
  • Ordric Linley
  • Osbern Pinchbeck
  • Osbern Wyndham
  • Osbert Yardley
  • Osfrith Lumb
  • Osgyth Dunning
  • Osmund Farrow
  • Osric Fenwick
  • Oswald of Worcester
  • Oswald Penrose
  • Oswin Threlkeld
  • Oswine of Deira
  • Osyth Colchester
  • Ottilie Fenchurch

P: 13 names

  • Patience Sowerby
  • Perceval Ottery
  • Percival Danbury
  • Percy Ravensworth
  • Petronilla Duckett
  • Petronilla Sheen
  • Philippa Crowther
  • Phineas Wragg
  • Phoebe Thistlecroft
  • Phyllis Grantham
  • Piers Stanton
  • Prudence Ashgrove
  • Prudence Bullivant

R: 21 names

  • Rachel Gatesby
  • Ralph Radcliffe
  • Ralph Wensleydale
  • Ranulf Coldharbour
  • Ranulf Ingoldsby
  • Rebecca Stokesley
  • Reginald Pinkerton
  • Reuben Hatherleigh
  • Reynold Stapleford
  • Reynold Thackeray
  • Rhoda Wigglesworth
  • Richard Gaskell
  • Robert Hargreaves
  • Rodney Alderton
  • Roger Ashbourne
  • Roger Foljambe
  • Roland Kentwell
  • Rosamund Tremaine
  • Rowena Thistlewood
  • Rupert Wainscott
  • Ruth Sallowby

S: 20 names

  • Samuel Tregenza
  • Sarah Hollingsworth
  • Septimus Greatorex
  • Seth Thurgood
  • Sidney Goodyear
  • Sigeberht Knaresby
  • Sigeric the Serious
  • Silas Garrick
  • Simeon Barleycorn
  • Simon Grosvenor
  • Siward Kettlewell
  • Solomon Bridgewater
  • Stanley Thackwray
  • Stanley Whitehouse
  • Stephen Gascoigne
  • Susanna Willoughby
  • Susannah Ewart
  • Swithin Holt
  • Sybil Rookwood
  • Sybilla Devereux

T: 13 names

  • Tabitha Marlowe
  • Temperance Fairbanks
  • Thaddeus Wickham
  • Theodora Waltham
  • Theophilus Gurney
  • Thomas Holcroft
  • Thomas Wingfield
  • Thomasin Fernside
  • Thomasina Clifford
  • Thurstan Ellesmere
  • Titus Wolfenden
  • Tobias Cartwright
  • Tristram Fairholm

U: 2 names

  • Ursula Cowgill
  • Ursula Mallory

V: 4 names

  • Vera Hepplewhite
  • Victoria Bexley
  • Violet Ashcroft
  • Vivian Nethercott

W: 34 names

  • Walter Flambard
  • Walter Hawksmoor
  • Walter Ravensby
  • Warin Dymoke
  • Warin Malet
  • Werburgh Cottingham
  • Wigmund Thursby
  • Wilberforce Gammon
  • Wilfred Hazeldine
  • Wilfred Lyttleton
  • Wilfred Stanwick
  • Wilfrid Hexham
  • Wilfrida Fletcher
  • Wilfrith Tollerton
  • William Cradock
  • Wilmot Dunstable
  • Winfreda Upton
  • Winifred Copplestone
  • Winifred Woolcott
  • Winnie Castleton
  • Wistan Ramsbottom
  • Wulfgeat Cawdrey
  • Wulfhere Eccles
  • Wulfhild Wareham
  • Wulfnoth Claverley
  • Wulfric Haslam
  • Wulfric Spot
  • Wulfrun Appleby
  • Wulfrun of Wolverhampton
  • Wulfstan Brockley
  • Wulfstan the Elder
  • Wulfwyn Ashcombe
  • Wynflæd the Widow
  • Wynflaed Hartley

Y: 2 names

  • Ysolde Harcourt
  • Ysolde Pennefather

Z: 1 name

  • Zachariah Pilbeam