Given name
Beowulf
“an intelligent wolf”
Beowulf is used as a given name. One Anglo-Saxon interpretation is “an intelligent wolf.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Anglo-Saxon interpretation is “an intelligent wolf.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Anglo-Saxon.
How it developed
Probably from Old English Bēowulf, built from English bee + wolf.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2010. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Beowulf through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 86
- 86 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2021
- 11 babies
- 2025
- 7
- #9,838 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +39%
- Rising
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 7 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 9,838 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Beowulf’s family of names
In Old English usage, Beowulf shares a linguistic root with the Old Norse form Bjólfr. Beowulf has a related form in Beowolf. Beowulf has a related form in Beowolfe.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Beowulf, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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“from the small brook”
95% boys · 5% girls