Contracted form of Rudolf, from Old Norse 'Hrólfr' meaning 'famous wolf.'
Rolf is a name of Old Norse and Germanic origin, a contracted form of Hrólf, itself a compound of hróðr (fame, glory) and úlfr (wolf). Wolf names held a place of particular honor in Norse and Germanic warrior culture: the wolf was sacred to Odin, embodied cunning and ferocity, and to name a child after it was to invoke both strength and divine favor. Rolf thus announces itself from its very etymology as a name shaped by the values of a martial, fate-conscious world.
The most consequential bearer of this name in European history was Hrólf Ragnvaldsson — known to history as Rollo — the Norse chieftain who in 911 CE negotiated the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte with King Charles the Simple of France, receiving Normandy in exchange for ceasing his raids and converting to Christianity. Rollo became the first Duke of Normandy, and his descendants — most famously William the Conqueror — would reshape England and the Mediterranean world. Every English-speaking person with Norman ancestry carries a trace of Rolf's lineage.
The name migrated through Norman French as Rollo, Rou, and Roul, but the Germanic Rolf form persisted strongly in Scandinavia and Germany. In modern usage Rolf is most strongly associated with Scandinavia and German-speaking Switzerland, where it remained common through the twentieth century. In the English-speaking world it has an old-fashioned, slightly rugged charm — familiar enough not to seem invented, rare enough to feel distinctive. Linguistically, its brisk one-syllable efficiency and the satisfying hardness of its terminal consonant give it a presence that longer, softer names lack.