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This section includes first names of English origin. Like the rest of the language, English names reflect a unique combination of languages from different families that began mixing together on a small island about 1600 years ago.
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Browse English male and female names by alphabetical order to find out the meanings of the names. Click on the first letter of the name you're looking for.
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English is a West Germanic language spoken by about 400 million native speakers, mostly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United States, and over 1 billion non-native speakers. Modern English began with a standardized London dialect of Middle English in the 15th century. Since then, it has absorbed enormous amounts of vocabulary from other languages.
Middle English began evolving from Old English in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. The Normans spoke a variety of Old French, and English vocabulary and grammar changed drastically during this period. Middle English is somewhat understandable by Modern English speakers.
Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, was a group of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to the British Isles by invading Germanic tribes, including the Angles and the Saxons, in the 5th and 6th centuries. The language displaced the Celtic languages but was also influenced by them, as well as by invading Norsemen and by Latin and Greek via the arrival of Christianity.
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