Loading your next page…
A name. A world of connections.
“elf” + “king, ruler”
[ˈæɫvˌriːt͡ʃ] · Old English
01 / Meaning & origin
Ælfric is a masculine given name documented in Old English. English Wiktionary records the meaning ““elf” + “king, ruler””.
Meaning: “elf” + “king, ruler”
From Proto-West Germanic *Albirīk, from *albi (“elf”) + *rīk (“king, ruler”). Equivalent to ælf + rīċ. Cognate with Old High German Elbrīh.
02 / Across borders
Explore official naming statistics and documented language connections around the world.
The name atlas
0
countries in our sources
Select a country to follow Ælfric’s connections around the world.
0 countries with official statistics. Language records show cultural connections; they do not measure how common a name is.
Selected country
Our sources do not yet connect this name with a country. New records will appear here as coverage grows.
No country coverage is recorded yet.
03 / By the numbers
Follow the spelling through the years, one published dataset at a time.
No official statistics are imported for this spelling. No statistical dataset covering this spelling has been imported yet. See data coverage.
04 / Through time
Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.
ÆLFRIC— “elf ruler”
…Otnit was about to pick him up, but received from him a tremendous blow, and after a sharp fight came to terms, and thenceforth he assisted him in his enterprise, gave him magic armour, and assisted him to gain the lady. Much of this story is repeated in the French romance of _Huon de Bourdeaux_, where Auberon, as he is there called, gives the knight an ivory horn wherewith to summon him to his aid in an emergency, and thus arose the English Oberon, the elf-rik or king, the…
…Otnit was about to pick him up, but received from him a tremendous blow, and after a sharp fight came to terms, and thenceforth he assisted him in his enterprise, gave him magic armour, and assisted him to gain the lady. Much of this story is repeated in the French romance of _Huon de Bourdeaux_, where Auberon, as he is there called, gives the knight an ivory horn wherewith to summon him to his aid in an emergency, and thus arose the English Oberon, the elf-rik or king, the graceful but petulant fairy whom Drayton marries to the Irish Mab, and Shakespeare to the Greek Titania. He had his human namesakes, too; Alberich was in fashion as a Frank name, as Ælfric was as a Saxon; and the Domesday Book shows that while we had plenty of the latter native form, Edward the Confessor had already imported two specimens of ‘Albericus comes,’ and these or their sons contracted into Aubrey, which was known to fame as almost hereditary among the De Veres, earls of Oxford.…
Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part VI, Chapter IV (Heroic Names Of The Nibelung), Section XIII (Elberich) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)
A little story to keep
Take the story of Ælfric with you. Create a personal name passport with its meaning, roots and connections.
06 / Behind the facts
Review status: Source-reported — no editorial review recorded yet. Last data change 2026-10-15.
Wiktionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata: CC0. Commons recordings retain their individual file licences. Complete attribution is available in each group above and alongside each chart.
