A male name. the etymology of this name has been the subject of much speculation: it has been variously derived from Celtic artos ‘a bear', Irish art ‘a stone’, and other Celtic words. It is more probably of Latin origin. There seems to have been a Roman gens named Artorius; Tacitus mentions an Artoria Flacilla and Juvenal an Artorius (some MSS have Arctorius or Arcturius). There are other examples of Latin names naturalized and surviving in Wales (e.g. Cat or Kai, Arthur’s seneschal = Caius' Emrys = Ambrosius), and it is significant that Gildas says that the leader of the Britons against the Saxons was a man of Roman race, Ambrosius Aurelianus. The earliest recorded example of the name Arthur occurs (as Arturius) in Adamnan’s life of St Columba, where it is the name of an Irish prince killed in 596; the earliest mention of King Artur is in Nennius (fl. 796). Artor and Artur are the names of tenants in Domesday Book. In the 13th C and thereafter it is usually Artur, Arturus until the 16th C when Arthur, Arther, Artheur, &c., are usual, though Arter is found as late as 1630, and the vulgar abbreviation Arty, which is still sometimes heard, may represent a survival of this. Never very common (until the 19th C), Arthur is most often found in the Middle Ages in counties bordering on Celtic districts, Cumberland, Yorkshire, Somerset, for example. It may be noted that the two early examples of its use for royal persons are also the result of Celtic connexions; Arthur Duke of Brittany, the unfortunate nephew of King John, was a Breton on his mother’s side, and Arthur Tudor, elder s. of Henry VII, was a Welshman. The name first appears in Scotland in the 13th C in the Galbraith family, whence it was carried by marriage to the Hamiltons. In the 19th C Arthur became very popular, chiefly, at first, on account of its being the name of the Duke of Wellington (he was named after his maternal grandfather, Arthur Hill, Viscount Duncannon, whose family had used the name since the 17 th C). Apart from his general influence, Wellington had a number of godsons named after him, among them the Duke of Connaught, youngest s. of Queen Victoria. Tennyson also, no doubt, had something to do with the revival of the name, both by his In Memoriam (commemorating his friend Arthur Hallam) and by his Idylls of the King. It is sometimes abbreviated to Arty (e.g. in The Newcomes 1854, Kipps 1905).

Artur, Arturus Domesday Book 1086. Artor Domesday Book 1086. Azer, Azor, Azorius, Azur Domesday Book 1086. Arthurus Curia Regis Rolls 1189 1213, Hundred Rolls 1273. Artur, Acur, Azur Curia Regis Rolls 1189-1213.

(For its literary associations, see especially E. K. Chamber’s pleasantly erudite Arthur of Britain.) Searle refers Arthur, as an A. -S. name, to Earnthor, which (I surmise) may possibly mean ‘eagle of Thor’; both Yonge and Swan simply define Arthur as ‘high’, but, even if we abandon the picturesque earn origin, this explains only the first syllable (Arth) as from ard (arth), high or noble in many Celtic tongues,—but not in Welsh, an exception that leads us to a third possibility:—King Arthur of the Round Table may have been ‘a Romanized Briton named from Arctus... and Arcturus, far behind him in (astronomical) Bootes’, Yonge. C20 opinion veers to the further possibility that Arthur is from Ardheer, a variant of Latin Arviragus as applied to Caradwg, the valiant son of Cymbeline, Arviragus being Ardrigh, an Erse term for a supreme monarch. To leave etymology for fashion, ‘Arthur is a rare medieval font-name, a fact no doubt due to the sad fate of King John’s nephew. Its modern popularity dates from the Duke of Wellington’ (Weekley’s Romance of Names). The occasional derisive use of Arthur may have, in part, been occasioned by Little Arthur’s History of England falling into disrepute; in greater part, by the jocular contempt meted out, in C20, by the lower classes to Algernon, Cuthbert, Clarence and Percy, qq. v.

Armstrong derives this name from Gael. ard, an eminent person; lit. high, lofty, exalted, noble, eminent, excellent, proud; but the name is rather from the Welsh arth, a bear. Conf. Gael, art, airt, a bear; Erse art, a bear; also noble, great, generous.

Celtic and Gaelic (masculine) - A bear.

A Cymric name, meaning: Bear man: valorous. (Celtic) Noble: lofty: stone.

A Gaelic name: Artair, Middle Gaelic Artuir, Early Irish Artuir, Artur, Irish Latin Arturius, son of Ædan (Adamnan), Welsh Arthur, to which the Latin Artorius (Juvenal) has been compared and suggested as its source (it being maintained that the Gens Artoria of Yorkshire lasted from Roman to Domesday-Book times, where Artor appears in the days of Edward the Confessor). If native to Brittonic (which is probable), it is from *arto-s, a bear, Welsh arth, Old Irish art, whence the names Art, Artgal, Artbran. Rhys prefers to render the *arto- as “cultor,” from ar, plough (Arth. Leg., 40-48), allying Arthur to the idea of a “Culture God.” Hence Gaelic M‘Artair, Mac-arthur.