From Germanic 'god' (God) and 'frid' (peace), meaning God's peace or divine peace.
Godfrey is a name of imposing Germanic lineage, composed of the elements *gott* (God) and *fred* (peace), yielding the grand meaning "God's peace." It entered England with the Normans, who carried it as *Geoffroi* or *Godefroy*, and it flourished throughout the medieval period as a name befitting knights, clerics, and noblemen. The Latinized form *Godefridus* appears in countless medieval charters, and the name was considered among the most dignified a Christian father could bestow.
Its most famous bearer in history is Godfrey of Bouillon, the Flemish nobleman who led the First Crusade and became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099. Though he declined the title of king, preferring *Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre*, he became a legendary figure in medieval Christendom — a model of chivalric virtue celebrated in epic poetry and chronicles for centuries. The name also appears in English aristocratic families and was borne by several notable clerics, scholars, and military men through the Renaissance and into the modern era.
By the 19th century Godfrey had settled into respectable English use without being fashionable, the kind of name that appeared in Trollope novels on steady country gentlemen. The 20th century gave it a comic dimension through Godfrey the mild, elderly Home Guard member in the BBC sitcom *Dad's Army*, though this only added affection to the name's character. Today it feels robustly antique, with a gravitas that revivals of medieval and Norman names are beginning to reclaim.