Adolf
Adolf or Adolph, latinized Adolfus , short from Adalwulf, Adalwolf and Adelwolf (Anglo-Saxon: Æthelwulf, Æþelwulf, Aethelwulf, Ethelwulf), is a Germanic given and surname (sometimes as Adloff). Even shorter forms are Adi, Alf, Wolf(f) and Wulf(f). The derived female form of Adolf/Adolph is Adolfine, Adolphine, Adolfina or Adolfa.
History
The name comes from Old High German and is composed of "adal" (noble, distinguished) and "wolf" (wolf). This can be understood together as "noble wolf" or "noblewolf", also "noble/sublime warrior and tough as a wolf", but many old Germanic personal names are simply composed of two members to be understood positively, without the composition as such having to have any meaning. In both Protestant Germany (because of Gustav Adolf, later King of Sweden) and Catholic Germany (because of Adolph Kolping, priest who dealt in particular with the social question), Adolf enjoyed a degree of popularity.
Notable people (excerpt)
- Adolf Martin Bormann (1930–2013), German theologian and laicized Roman Catholic priest
- Adolf "Adi" Dassler (1900–1978), German entrepreneur, founder (together with his brother) of Adidas
- Adolf Egeberg Jr. (1909–1972), Norwegian National Socialist
- Adolf Ehrt 1902–1975), German sociologist, publicist and British and German secret agent
- Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962), German officer of the SS
- Adolf von Essen (1372–1439), German member of the Order of Carthusian, established the rosary in the form we know it today
- Adolfine Fraatz (1847–1913), first wife of Robert Koch
- Adolf Galland (1912–1996), German general of the Luftwaffe
- Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), Austrian politician and Reichskanzler of the German Reich
- Adolf Joffe (1883–1927), Jewish Russian diplomat
- Adolph Franz Friedrich Ludwig Freiherr Knigge (1752–1796), German writer and a leading member of the Order of the Illuminati
- Adolf Joseph Lanz (1874–1954), Austrian esotericist and occultist
- Adolf Pirmann (1895–1985), German officer of the navy and Luftwaffe
- Hans-Adolf Prützmann (1901–1945), German officer of the SS
- Adolf Stoecker (1835–1909), German Lutheran theologian
