Meanings
- A male given name from the Germanic languages.
I neuer ſaw but Humfrey Duke of Gloſter, / Did beare him like a Noble Gentleman: […]
1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 121, column 21 more example
"Hump?" I asked. "Humphrey, really. But everybody calls him Hump. I know a lot of people who avoid calling him by his first name. For a long time people didn't think it was quite proper. But nowadays nobody seems to mind. What's happening to the power of words, Benny? Time was I used to blush at the words scrawled on fences, and now I hear them—everywhere. How are writers going to write books if language is going bland on them?"
1988, Howard Engel, chapter 6, in A Victim Must Be Found, Markham, Ont.: Viking, →ISBN, page 70 - A surname originating as a patronymic.
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*unnaną“to grant, bestow”
- EnglishHumphrey
Name of a 9th-century French saint, brought to England by Normans; Proto-Germanic *unnaną (“to grant, bestow”) + *friþuz (“peace”). In Ireland it has been used to Anglicize Irish Amhlaoibh (= Olaf).
More words from Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Humphrey. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Humphrey
“Humphrey.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Humphrey. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Humphrey,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Humphrey.
Source: Humphrey on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.