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“betterment, recompense” + “battle”
[ˈboːt.hiɫd] · Old English
01 / Meaning & origin
Bothild is a feminine given name documented in Old English. English Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *Bōtōhildiz, from the components “betterment, recompense” + “battle”.
Separate records with matching spellings: Bóthild (Faroese)
Meaning: “betterment, recompense” + “battle”
From Proto-West Germanic *Bōtuhildi, from Proto-Germanic *Bōtōhildiz, from *bōtō (“betterment, recompense”) + *hildiz (“battle”). Equivalent to bōt + hild. Cognate with Faroese Bóthild.
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03 / By the numbers
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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.
Bothild— “commanding heroine”
It is doubtful whether this, or the Welsh _bedaws_, life, gave his name to the Venerable Bæda, but no doubt to himself and his contemporaries it suggested the idea of prayer. There is no doubt, however, in the case of Baudhildur, or Bathilda (the commanding heroine), the daughter of king Nidudr, the lady whom Volundr carried off with him when he fled from her mother’s cruelty. After her was called Bathilda, an Anglo-Saxon slave, who was elevated to be the wife of the second…
It is doubtful whether this, or the Welsh _bedaws_, life, gave his name to the Venerable Bæda, but no doubt to himself and his contemporaries it suggested the idea of prayer. There is no doubt, however, in the case of Baudhildur, or Bathilda (the commanding heroine), the daughter of king Nidudr, the lady whom Volundr carried off with him when he fled from her mother’s cruelty. After her was called Bathilda, an Anglo-Saxon slave, who was elevated to be the wife of the second Hluodwig, and lived so holy a life, and exerted herself so much to obtain the redemption of slaves, that she was canonized, and, as _la reine Bathilde_, was greatly venerated in the believing days of France. Denmark also used this name, having probably taken it from England. There ‘Dronning Bothild,’ the wife of king Ejegod, spread the name among the maidens, so that it passed to Norway as Bodild, Bodil, and even to the contraction Boel.
Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part VI, Chapter VI (Descriptive Names), Section II (Command) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)
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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.
