Ælfgifu

Ælfgifu (also Ælfgyfu; Elfgifa, Elfgiva, Elgiva) is an Anglo-Saxon feminine personal name, from ælf "elf" and gifu "gift". When Emma of Normandy, the later mother of Edward the Confessor, became queen of England in 1002, she was given the native Anglo-Saxon name of Ælfgifu to be used in formal and official contexts.<ref>Florence of Worcester: Emmam, Saxonica Alfgivam vocatam; see Template:Cite book</ref>

Latinized forms of the name include forms such as Aelueua, Alueua, Alueue, Elgiva, Elueua, Aluiua, Aueue (etc.).

People called Ælfgifu:

Ælfgifu of Exeter, Anglo-Saxon saint
Ælfgifu of Northampton, first wife of King Cnut the Great. Her name became Álfífa in Old Norse.
Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, wife of King Edmund I of England
Ælfgifu of York, first wife of Æthelred the Unready
Ælfgifu, wife of Eadwig, king of England
- as Elgiva, the female protagonist of Edwy and Elgiva, a 1790 verse tragedy by Frances Burney
Emma of Normandy adopted the name Ælfgifu upon her marriage to Æthelred the Unready
Ælfgifu, wife of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia
Ælfgifu, daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and sister of King Harold II of England
Ælfgifu, daughter of Æthelred the Unready and wife of Uhtred, Earl of Northumbria
Ælfgyva, a woman of unknown identity in the Bayeux Tapestry

Elgiva may also refer to:

References