Alfred
A surname usually taken from the medieval personal name Alfred, meaning “elf counsel” in Old English.
The #5,364 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 47,573 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally from the medieval given name Alfred, later standardized as Alfred. The personal name goes back to Old English Ælfrǣd, usually explained as a compound of elements meaning “elf” and “counsel.” In some medieval records the name also appears as Alured, an older spelling and Latinized form.
History
Older surname use seems to have been based on descent from a man named Alfred rather than on a place-name. 19th-century surname writers note that the name was especially associated with Sussex and that medieval spellings such as Alured were common. It remains an uncommon surname compared with the far more common given name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is relatively rare, but the given name behind it became famous through King Alfred the Great.
From the historical record
“Somerset. ALFRED. The personal name. Very common in Domesd. and later, as Alured. ALFREY. Probably a corruption of Alfred ; or it may be local, though I cannot discover any place so designated. The name belongs, I think, almost exclusively to Sussex. "The forms iElfer, Alfere, and Alferus occur before 1086 in that…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United KingdomNotable people named Alfred
- Julien Alfred (b. 2001)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.