Godfrey

Godfrey is a given name and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French Godefroy, a name composed of the elements: the first being either god ('God') or gōd ('good'); the second being fred ('peace'). The name was brought to England by settlers from Normandy, the Low Countries, and France. The name is rendered Goraidh or Goiridh in Scottish Gaelic.

Given name

medieval

• Godfrey of Bouillon (1060–1100), leader of the First Crusade
• Godfrey of Cambrai (11th century), prior and poet
• Godfrey of Chichester (11th century), bishop of Chichester
• Godred Crovan (died 1095), King of Dublin and the Isles
• Gofraid mac Amlaíb meic Ragnaill (died 1075), King of Dublin

modern

• Godfrey (comedian) (born 1969), stage name of Godfrey Danchimah
• Godfrey Cambridge (1933-1976), American comedian
• Godfrey Kiprotich (born 1964), Kenyan distance runner
• Godfrey Reggio (born 1939), American director of experimental documentary films
• Godfrey Zaunbrecher (born 1946), American football player
• Thomas Godfrey Evans (1920–1999), English cricketer

Surname

• Albert Earl Godfrey (1890–1982), Canadian First World War flying ace
• Ambrose Godfrey (1660–1741), phosphorus manufacturer
• Arthur Godfrey (1903–1983), American radio and television broadcaster
• Ben Godfrey (born 1998), English professional footballer
• Bob Godfrey (1921–2013), English animator
• Brian Godfrey (1940–2010), Welsh footballer
• Dan Godfrey (1868–1939), British bandmaster and composer
• Daniel Strong Godfrey (b. 1949), American composer
• DeWitt Godfrey (born 1960), an American modernist sculptor
• Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (1621-1678), magistrate murdered in 1678
• Frederick Race Godfrey (1828-1910), public figure and politician in Victoria, Australia
• Isidore Godfrey (1900–1977), conductor
• Paul Godfrey (born 1939), former president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays
• Richard Godfrey (disambiguation), multiple people
• Robert John Godfrey (born 1947), British composer, pianist and founder member of The Enid
• Steve Godfrey (disambiguation), multiple people
• Thomas J. Godfrey, (1831–1906), American legislator
• Tommy Godfrey (1916–1984), British actor
• Tony Godfrey (footballer) (born 1939), English football goalkeeper who played for Southampton, Aldershot and Rochdale

Places

• Godfrey, Illinois, a US village
• Godfrey, Kansas
• Godfrey, Washington
• Godfrey, Ontario, a Canadian community

Fiction

• Glorious Godfrey, often known just by the name "Godfrey", a DC Comics supervillain
• Lord Vincent Godfrey, a character from the Warcaft universe, who appears in the Worgen quest line
• Private Charles Godfrey, a character from Dad's Army.
• Godfrey St. Peter, the protagonist of Willa Cather's 1925 novel, The Professor's House.
• Glamorous Godfrey in the TV series The Simpsons; Grandpa Abe was known by that name when he was a professional wrestler.

See also

• Geoffrey (given name), a possible English/French equivalent
• Godfried, a Dutch equivalent
• Gottfried, a German equivalent

References

• Hanks, P; Hardcastle, K; Hodges, F (2006) [1990]. A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1.
• Mark, C (2003). The Gaelic-English Dictionary. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-27706-6.