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Ethel

Name list

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
4 min read
Source updated August 23, 2026
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Ethel (also æthel) is an Old English word meaning "noble", today often used as a feminine given name.

01Etymology and historic usage

The word comes from the Old English word æthel, meaning "noble".

It is frequently attested as the first element in Anglo-Saxon names, both masculine and feminine, e.g. Æthelhard, Æthelred, Æthelwulf; Æthelburh, Æthelflæd, Æthelthryth (Audrey). It corresponds to the Adel- and Edel- in continental names, such as Adolf (Æthelwulf), Albert (Adalbert), Adelheid (Adelaide), Edeltraud and Edelgard.

Some of the feminine Anglo-Saxon names in Æthel- survived into the modern period (e.g. Etheldred Benett 1776-1845). Ethel was in origin used as a familiar form of such names, but it began to be used as a feminine given name in its own right beginning in the mid-19th century, gaining popularity due to characters so named in novels by William Makepeace Thackeray (The Newcomes, 1855) and Charlotte Mary Yonge (The Daisy Chain whose heroine Ethel's full name is Etheldred, 1856); the actress Ethel Barrymore, born 1879, was named after The Newcomes character.

Notes & Queries published correspondence about the name Ethel in 1872 because it was in fashion.

The feminine name's popularity peaked in the 1890s. In the United States, it was the 7th most commonly given name for baby girls in the year 1894. Its use gradually declined during the 20th century, falling below rank 100 by 1940, and below rank 1000 in 1976.

Ethel was also occasionally used as a masculine given name during the 1880s to 1910s, but never with any frequency (never rising above rank 400, or 0.02% in popularity).

02People

03Fictional characters

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ethel”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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Related topics

Ætheling

An Ætheling was in Anglo-Saxon England a prince of the royal dynasty eligible for the kingship. It is an Old English term (æþeling) derived from a compound of aethele, æþele or (a)ethel, meaning "noble family", and -ing, which means "belonging to".

*Ōþala

ᛟ is a rune that is transliterated as o and œ in the Elder Futhark and the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc writing systems respectively. It is known as ēþel in Old English, from which hypothetical Proto-Germanic names such as *ōþala have been reconstructed.

Odal

Odal is a Germanic word which relates to property, heritability or nobility.