Ralph (name)
Encyclopedia
Ralph is an English, Scandinavian and German male given name, derived from Old Norse Raðulfr (rað "counsel" + ulfr "wolf") through Old English Rædwulf and the longer form Radulf. It is commonly but the traditional British pronunciation is ˈreɪf.
Variant forms include:
Variant forms include:
- Ralph, the common variant form in the English languageEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. - Ralph, as traditionally pronounced ˈreɪf:
- Raif, variant form which is a very rare male first name.
- Raef, variant form which is a very rare male first name.
- Raff, variant form which is a very rare male first name.
- Rafe, variant form which is a very rare male first name; it is pronounced /ˈreɪf/, the same as the traditional but infrequent pronunciation of Ralph.
- Ralf, the traditional variant form in the DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
languages (although Ralph is also used as a given name in German and Swedish). - RaoulRaoul-In media:* Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, character in The Phantom of the Opera* Raoul , the second single by indie band The Automatic* Raoul EP, the extended play featuring b-sides from The Automatic's first album Not Accepted Anywhere...
, the traditional variant form in the French languageFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. - Raúl, the traditional variant form in the Spanish languageSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. - Raul, the traditional variant form in the Portuguese languagePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
. - Raül, the traditional variant form in the Catalan languageCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
.