Wulfræd

Male
DWP
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Wulfræd is an Old English masculine name comprising the elements wulf ‘wolf’ and ræd ‘advice, counsel’. There is potential for confusion with some DB forms for Wulffrith, although no certain instance has been found and the ambiguous form Vlued has been shown to refer to Wulffrith rather than Wulfræd (von Feilitzen 1937: 75-6, 83-4, 392, 418-9, 422-3; Fellows Jensen 1968: lxxiv, lxxxv, 303-4; contra Morgan and Thorn 1986: DB Lincs. 1,23 Notes).

There is only one entry for the head-form Wulfræd in the PASE corpus, Wulfræd 1 being a catch-all for occurrences in DB. There are, however, 47 entries under the head-form Wulfred. The vast majority of occurrences recorded in PASE pre-date the late tenth century and only one certainly occurs later than c.1042 (Wulfræd 35, a moneyer at London), which might indicate that this once-common name became less frequent during the late Anglo-Saxon period. However, Freeman (1985: 152, 210-12, 514-15) notes the presence of moneyers called Wulfræd at Aylesbury and Canterbury as well as London after 1042, while there are three eleventh- and one twelfth-century instances in the Durham Liber Vitae (DLV: i, 92, 95, 126-7) and Ekwall (1947: 70) notes several instances from twelfth-century London.

Bibliography

DLV: The Durham Liber Vitae. London, British Library, MS Cotton Domitian A.VII: Edition and Digital Facsimile with Introduction, Codicological, Prosopographical and Linguistic Commentary, and Indexes, ed. D. W. Rollason and L. Rollason, 3 vols. (London: British Library, 2007)

Ekwall 1947: E. Ekwall, Early London Personal Names (Lund, 1947)

Fellows Jensen 1968: Gillian Fellows Jensen, Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (Copenhagen: I Kommission hos Akademisk Forlag, 1968)

Freeman 1985: A. Freeman, The Moneyer and the Mint in the Reign of Edward the Confessor, B.A.R. British series 145 (1985)

Morgan and Thorn 1986: Domesday Book 31: Lincolnshire, ed. P. Morgan and C. Thorn (Chichester, 1986)

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Vlfred, Vlfret, Vluret, Vluuredus

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Wulfræd

  Phillimore edition: Wulfred, Wilfred, Wulfret

  Alecto edition: Wulfræd

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Hampshire 64,2 Titchfield Vluret Wulfræd 'the thunderbolt' Edward, king Alfred the priest - 1.00 1.00 1.00 B Map
Kent 5,1 Hawley - Wulfræd 'of Hawley' Edward, king Odo, bishop of Bayeux Hugh de Port 0.17 0.25 0.25 - Map
Kent 5,1 Hawley Vluret Wulfræd 'of Hawley' Edward, king Odo, bishop of Bayeux Hugh de Port 0.22 0.25 0.25 - Map
Oxfordshire 43,1 Littlestoke Vlfred Wulfræd 'of Checkendon' - Alfred nephew of Wigot - 3.00 4.00 3.00 C Map
Oxfordshire 43,2 Checkendon Wluredus Wulfræd 'of Checkendon' - Alfred nephew of Wigot - 5.00 4.00 3.00 C Map
Suffolk 8,55 Stonham Vluret Wulfræd 'of Stonham' Ælfflæd, antecessor of Roger the Poitevin Roger the Poitevin - 0.17 0.00 0.00 B Map
Totals

Sub-subtenant in 1086

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Kent 5,1 Hawley Vluret Wulfræd 'of Hawley' Edward, king Odo, bishop of Bayeux Hugh de Port 0.17 0.25 0.25 C Map
Kent 5,1 Hawley Vluret Wulfræd 'of Hawley' Edward, king Odo, bishop of Bayeux Hugh de Port 0.22 0.25 0.25 C Map
Totals