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A given name in Old Norse
Language context for this entry: Old Norse
No sourced pronunciation yet
01 / Meaning & origin
Leifr is a masculine given name documented in Old Norse. English Wiktionary records an etymology for it.
Short form of Old Norse given names that contain Old Norse leifr (“inheritor”).
02 / Across borders
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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.
Leifr— “relic”
The old Saxon histories call some of these enemies by the name of Anlaff, in particular the chief who visited King Æthelstan’s tent in a minstrel’s disguise, and betrayed himself by burying the guerdon that he was too proud to keep. The same persons whom England called Anlaff, and Ireland Amlaidh, were, in the North, Alafr, or Olafr, according to the custom of pronouncing the diphthong _a_ like an _o_, and then so spelling it, _e.g._, Aasbiorn, Osbiorn. The latter syllable is…
The old Saxon histories call some of these enemies by the name of Anlaff, in particular the chief who visited King Æthelstan’s tent in a minstrel’s disguise, and betrayed himself by burying the guerdon that he was too proud to keep. The same persons whom England called Anlaff, and Ireland Amlaidh, were, in the North, Alafr, or Olafr, according to the custom of pronouncing the diphthong _a_ like an _o_, and then so spelling it, _e.g._, Aasbiorn, Osbiorn. The latter syllable is _laf_ or _leif_, from the verb _lev_, the Anglo-Saxon _leafan_, our own _leave_. It is a word that never is used as a commencement, and but rarely stands alone, though the North sometimes has a Leifr, and it is used in the sense of what is remaining. Anlaff, or Olaf, is thus what is left of his forefathers, his ancestor’s relic, and a very notable relic was the gallant king Olaf Trygveson, the prime hero of the _Heimskringla_, whose last battle is so nobly described there. Scarcely less noble is his relative, Olaf the saint, the ally of England, who fought her battles near London-bridge, and has left his name to the church of St.…
Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part VI, Chapter II (Names From Teuton Mythology), Section XVIII (Forefathers) · 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.
