Entry № 2717 · Anglo-Saxon origin

Ealhswith Ealhswith — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ AHL-swith /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Anglo-Saxon
Meaning
"Strong sanctuary (Alfred the Great's wife)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Medieval (Anglo-Saxon)

A name that means "strong sanctuary (alfred the great's wife)".

Ealhswith (852-902) was the wife of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, and mother of Aethelflaed and King Edward the Elder — a Mercian princess who shaped the Anglo-Saxon royal dynasty.

She founded the nunnery of St. Mary's at Winchester.

Strong sanctuary. Alfred the Great's wife.

The name in its native script.

Ealhswith
Transliteration
Ealhswith
Pronunciation
/ ˈɑːl.swɪθ /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Ealhswith stands.

Ealhswith does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Ealhswiths before her.

Real people
Ealhswith
Wife of Alfred the Great.
852 – 902
In fiction
Ealhswith
Featured in BBC's The Last Kingdom.
2015 series

Names connected to Ealhswith.

The number behind Ealhswith.

6

The Nurturer

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Ealhswith reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.