 | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Germanic languages |
| Meaning | "Noble brave" |
| Popularity | see popular names |
Alphons (Latinized Alphonsus, Adelphonsus, or Adefonsus) is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula. In the later medieval period it became a standard name in the Hispanic and Portuguese royal families.[1]
It is derived from a Gothic name, or a conflation of several Gothic names; from *Aþalfuns, composed of the elements aþal "noble" and funs "eager, brave, ready", and perhaps influenced by names such as *Alafuns, *Adefuns and *Hildefuns. It is recorded as Adefonsus in the 9th and 10th century,[2] and as Adelfonsus, Adelphonsus in the 10th to 11th. The reduced form Alfonso is recorded in the late 9th century, and the Portuguese form Afonso from the early 11th[3][4] and Anfós in Catalan from the 12th century until the 15th.[5]
Variants of the name include: Alonso (Spanish), Alfonso (Spanish and Italian), Alfons (Dutch, German, Catalan, Polish, Croatian and Scandinavian), Afonso (Portuguese and Galician), Alphonse, Alfonse (French and English), etc.
- ^ . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (9th ed.). 1878. pp. 615–619.
- ^ In the genitive, Adefonsi.
- ^ José Pedro Machado, Dicionário Onomástico Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa
- ^ E. Förstemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch (1856:133, 145).
- ^ Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya; 62nd ed.; Barcelona; 1998; ISBN 84-297-3521-6; p. 25.