A male name. Old German Athalwolf, compound of athal ‘noble’ and wolfa ‘a wolf’. The equivalent Old English Ætheltwulf died out after the Conquest. Adolphus is a latinized version of the German form Adelulf, which was adopted in the 17th and 18th C by various German royal families and brought to England by the Hanoverians. Adolf is the usual form in German today and Adolphe in French.

From the Teutonic for ‘noble wolf’. Charlotte Yonge, ‘Athaulf... stands in our own roll of English kings as the father of Alfred, namely, Æthelwulf; but this good old name was dropped in England, while its German cousin, in honour of a sainted bishop of Metz... became very common in (Germany), and was imported with the house of Hanover in the barbarous Latin form of Adolphus.’ Now to be avoided, for it ranks with Algernon and Cuthbert as comically pompous.

The same as the Old German name Ataulphus, which Wachter in one place renders ‘helping father,’ from atta father, hulf help, helper; and in another place, more correctly, ‘helper of happiness,’ from od, happiness, &c. But see Hidulphus, under Alphonso.

Teutonic (masculine) - Noble helper.

A Latin name, meaning: Form of Adolph.