Alfred (name)

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Alfred is an English given name, one of the few Anglo-Saxon names which saw continued use until modern times. Its Old English form is Ælfræd (Old English pronunciation: [ˈælfˌræːd]), composed of the elements ælf "elf" and ræd "counsel". It is also related to the name Alf of Old Norse.

Its most famous bearer was Alfred the Great, the 9th-century English king. Due to the lasting fame of King Alfred, the name remained in use throughout the medieval period. It had, however, become rare by the early modern period, and its popularity was revived in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Famous modern people called Alfred include Alfred Lord Tennyson, Alfred Nobel and Alfred Hitchcock.

Given name

Royalty and politicians

• Alfred the Great, 9th-century King of Wessex
• Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• Alfred W. Bethea, South Carolina politician
• Alfred Winsor Brown, governor of Guam
• Alfred Deakin, (1856–1919) an 2nd Prime Minister of Australia
• Alfred Goldthwaite (1921–1997), Alabama politician
• Alfred Käärmann (1922–2010), an Estonian freedom fighter
• Al Smith, American statesman
• Alfred Graf von Schlieffen(1833–1913), German field marshal and strategist

Writers and philosophers

• Alfred Bester, an American science fiction author
• Alfred de Musset (1810-1857), a French romantic poet and playwright
• Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863), a French romantic poet
• Alfred Jarry, a French writer and founder of 'pataphysics
• Alfred Rosenberg (1893–1946), a German Nazi theorist
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, a British poet
• Alfred North Whitehead, an English analytic philosopher and mathematician, co-author of Principia Mathematica

Athletes

• Alfred Eissler, NFL player
• Alfred Kipketer (born 1996), Kenyan middle-distance runner and 2013 world youth champion
• Alfred Morris, an American football player
• Alfred Neuland (1895–1966), an Estonian weightlifter
• Alf Ramsey, an English football manager
• Alfred Schmidt (1898–1972), an Estonian weightlifter
• Alfred Tetteh, a Ghanaian boxer

Businessmen

• Alfred Fielding, the inventor of Bubble Wrap
• Alfred Goodwill (1830–1905), American merchant and landowner
• Alfred S. Hart, American business and banker, born as Alfred Harskovitz.
• Alfred Lindon (c. 1868–1948), businessman and art collector
• Alfred Pisani, a prominent hotelier
• Alfred Sung, a fashion designer

Other

• Al Capp, American cartoonist and humorist
• Merhan Karimi Nasseri (Alfred), a man who has been living in the departure hall of Terminal 1 of the Charles de Gaulle Airport since 1988
• Alfred A. Lama (1899-1984), Italian-born American architect and politician.
• Alfred Packer, an American cannibal
• Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American naval strategist
• Alfred Trzebinski (1902–1946), a German SS-physician at several Nazi concentration camps
• Alfred Worden, American astronaut, one of only 24 people who have flown to the Moon

Artists and entertainers

• Alfred Hawthorne, the real name of English comedian Benny Hill
• Alfred Hirv (1880–1918), an Estonian painter
• Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980), a film director especially in the suspense genre
• Alfred Molina, a British and American actor
• Alfred Schnittke, a Russian composer
• "Weird Al" Yankovic (born 1959), a parody–comedy musician with the real name Alfred Matthew Yankovic
• Alfred Hui, a Hong Kong artist, singer and dentist

Scientists

• Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956), an American biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, famous for his research on human sexuality
• Alfred Marshall, an English economist
• Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), a Swedish chemist and engineer
• Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann (1801–1877), German physiologist, anatomist, and philosopher
• Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist
• Alfred Wegener (1880–1930), a German scientist

Fictional characters

• Alfred Doolittle, the father of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion' and My Fair Lady
• Alfred Pennyworth, the butler to DC Comics character Batman
• Alfred the Sartan, a fictional character from The Death Gate Cycle
• Alfred E. Neuman, the fictional mascot and iconic cover boy of Mad magazine
• Alfred, a video game character from the Fatal Fury (series)
• Alfred Demonreach, the "genius loci" (guardian spirit) of Demonreach Island from the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher

Surname

• Mike Alfred (poet), a South African poet

See also

• Alfredo