Given name & surname
Godfrey
“God is peace”
Godfrey is used as a given name and a surname. One German interpretation is “God is peace.”
Original GermanGottfried
Meaning & origin
What it means
One German interpretation is “God is peace.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is German.
How it developed
From Old French Godefrei, from Old High German Godafrid (“peace of God”), from Proto-Germanic *Gudafriþuz, built from English god + frith.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Godfrey was in use during the Middle Ages.
Godfrey through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 3,245
- 3,245 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1918
- 71 babies
- 2025
- 10
- #7,850 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −6%
- Steady
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 10 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 7,850 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 5.8% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 71 in 1918. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 2,800 as a first name in 2020; 27,953 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Godfrey’s family of names
Godfrey has an affectionate form in Götz. In English usage, Godfrey shares a linguistic root with the Portuguese form Godofredo. Godfrey has a related form in Godfred.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Godfrey has relatives in 16 languages. Lines run from its German roots to each of them.
Germanwhere Godfrey comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 21
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 19
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Godfrey
- G. H. HardyBritish mathematician (1877–1947)
- Godfrey of BouillonMedieval Frankish knight1060–1100
- Godfrey HounsfieldEnglish electrical engineer (1919–2004)
- Godfrey KnellerGerman-born British painter (1646–1723)
- Godfrey GaoTaiwanese-Canadian actor and model (1984-2019)
- Godfrey BinaisaUgandan President from May 1979 to June 19801920–2010
- Godfrey ChitaluZambian footballer (1947–1993)
- Godfrey I of LouvainCount of Louvain (c. 1060–1139)
- Godfrey OboabonaNigerian footballerborn 1990
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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