Gottfried

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Gottfried
Pronunciation German pronunciation: [ˈɡɔtfʁiːt]
Gender masculine

Gottfried is a masculine German given name. It is derived from the Old High German name Godafrid, recorded since the 7th century. The name is composed of the elements god- (conflated from the etyma for "god" and "good", and possibly further conflated with gaut) and frid- ("peace, protection").[1]

The name was introduced to England by the Normans and became anglicized as Godfrey. The same name became Geoffrey in Middle French, which was in turn anglicized as Jeffrey. The Italian form is Goffredo.

The German name was commonly abbreviated as Götz from the late medieval period. Götz and variants (including Göthe, Göthke and Göpfert) also came into use as German surnames.

Given name

See also: All pages beginning with "Gottfried".

The given name Gottfried became extremely frequent in Germany in the High Middle Ages, to the point of eclipsing most other names in God- (such as Godabert, Gotahard, Godohelm, Godomar, Goduin, Gotrat, Godulf, etc.) The name was Latinized as Godefridus. Medieval bearers of the name include:

A notable early modern bearer of the name is Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716).

Gottfried remains comparatively popular in Germany, ranking in the top 200 masculine given names.[2]

Surname

References

  1. Ernst Förstemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch (1856), 533.
  2. found to be at rank 135 with 11,738 entries in the German phonebook as of 2005 according to de:wikt:Verzeichnis:Deutsch/Liste der häufigsten männlichen Vornamen Deutschlands.

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