(WIN-e-fred; WIN-nee; gwen-VROO-wee)
Winifred is an anglicized from of the Welsh female name, Gwenfrewi, the first element, gwen meaning “white; holy,” while the second element is uncertain but is suggested to mean “reconciliation” or “peace.” Many sources have confused this with the Anglo-Saxon male name, Winfred which actually means “friend of peace” or “peaceful friend,” but the names are actually unrelated.
In Medieval England, the name was popularized by the cult of a 7th-century Welsh saint. According to legend, Winifred wanted to be a nun, which enraged a jealous suitor by the name of Caradog who decapitated her. Her uncle, St. Beuno, was able to place her head back on her shoulders and she was miraculously restored back to life. St. Winifred was able to live the rest of her life in holiness and died at a ripe old age, while her brother killed Caradog in revenge for her decapitation. A spring miraculously rose up from the site of her decapitation and for centuries, this was a site of pilgrimage for healing. While her story of being decapitated and brought back to life cannot be verified, historians do believe St. Winifred was a real person and that something definitely happened to her neck at some point in her life, as old Latin records always refer to a strange scar. Who knows….
To this day, Winifred’s Well in Holywell in Shrewsbury, England remains a popular site of pilgrimage, despite Henry VIII’s destruction of the shrine in the 16th-century, it seems to have been rebuilt.
St. Winifred has been referenced in English literature throughout the centuries. Her well is mentioned in the Medieval poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Her life story was dramatized as a play by William Rowley in A Shoemaker a Gentleman (1637), which was based on an earlier work by Thomas Deloney, The Gentle Craft (1584). In the 19th-century, St Winifred’s Well was written by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Winifred was in the U.S. Top 1000 Female names between 1900 and 1965. The name was never too popular however, the highest Winifred ever ranked was at #141 in 1917.
Its diminutive offshoot of Winnie established itself as an independent given name by the 16th-century. There are a few records of “just Winnies” going as far back as the 1500s. Other interesting variations that appear in old English records include Wenefrett, Wenneffred, Winefrute, and Winnifruite.
Winnie appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 between 1900 and 1957 and peaked at #190 between 1900 and 1901.
Its original Welsh form doesn’t seem to have ever been in popular use outside of Wales, and while other Welsh names have established themselves in regular use across the anglosphere, Gwenffrewi was never one of them.
Other forms of the name include:
- Gwenfrewi (Breton, Welsh)
- Winefride (French)
- Vinfreda (Italian/Latin)
- Wenefryda (Polish)
- Wenfryda (Polish)
- Winifreda (Polish)
- Wenifreda (Polish)
- Winfryda (Polish)
- Gwenffrwd (Welsh)