genuinely old English girls names?

[utopian99]

Looking for true old English not just 'vintagey' sounding. We have loads of good boys options but really struggle with girls. Our ds has a name we decided years before he was conceived which then turned out to be in the top ten that year which will irk me forever, so less common is better...

There's a long list to look through here

Matilda was the first one to occur to me but I think it's German in origin.

How about
Agatha
Agnes
Dulcie
Emma
Edwina
Faye
Janet
Joan
Laetitia
Marian
Philippa

How old do you want to go?

Here's a lovely thread about Anglo Saxon names and there's a recent thread about Biblical ones (which would be even older), or you could try Ancient Greek or Roman names, or ones from ancient Egyptian myths and engravings.

Eleanor
Elizabeth
Katherine / Catharine
Isobel(la)
Jane
Anne
Matilda
Margaret
Emma
Edith
Philippa
Joan
Henrietta
Mary
Ethelreda
Maud
Sybilla
Euphemia
Annabella
Madeleine
Judith

Beatrice

Have a look through this:
www.s-gabriel.org/names/english.shtml

It has lists from various records of names from specific time periods.

Felicity
Verity
Cecily

Were the ones that came to mind... No logic though. Know nothing about the origins, they just feel English to me.

Fritha is a beautiful Anglo-Saxon name.

Maud(e) is the English version of Matilda, very old.

Also Alice (very popular with medieval women), Joan, Christina, Emma, Eleanor, Margaret, Margery, Agnes, Agatha, Catherine, Elizabeth, Bridget, Edith - all popular medieval women's names, though not all of strictly English origin.

Oh and Ethel and Hilda.

Agree with Myrtle above. Woud add Isabel/ Isabella and variations of Mary such as Mariota plus perhaps Joan (and variations).

Verity, Cecily, Felicity etc hardly ever used in England in Middle Ages.

Hmm. Read the Anglo saxon name thread and there aresome properly old, but possibly too old, nanenames there...

I like cecily, although not old English, but it means 'blind' I think. Also love Beatrice (mostly from reading Much Ado,) but dh has vetoed. Argh.. am rubbish at girls!

How about Shakesperean?

Viola, Portia, Desdemona, Portia, Rosalind, Celia, Mopsa?

Rosamund

Rosalind

Juliet

Cecilia

Catherine

Cordelia
Imogen
Mirabel

Anstice (Norman - Anastasia)
Berengaria
Elfrieda
Petronella (Norman)
Adelaide (Norman)
Alison (strangely enough)
Clarimund
Eleanor
Elysande
Heloise/ Eloise
Millicent
Isolde/ Yseult
Rosamund
Rosalind
Clare
Juliana
Anchoret (possibly from Welsh Angharad)
Honora/ Annora
Jehane
Guinevere
Benedicta
Helen
Katherine
Margaret
Averil
Audrey (from Etheldreda)
Marjorie
Sibylla
Amabel/ Annabel/ Arabel

And Aphrah / Aphra

Inga
Jacqueline/ Jacquetta

Hmm define English? Most of the names people have suggested above are French. Because high status Medieval English people mostly spoke French until quite late on. A few are derived from Ancient British languages (mostly filtered through Norman French) and a few are from Anglo Saxon languages, ie German, and filtered the same way. I would pick a era and go look up names from then, but not get hung up on Englishness..

Cecily does mean 'blind', but she is also the patron saint of musicians which has a nicer meaning

MistyEgg I don't trust that search... I've just changed the list to 1980. Surely the boys names are incorrect:

1 Chaim
2 Kameron
3 Isaia
4 Coy
5 Jakob
6 Garrick
7 Taurean
8 Kraig
9 Lazaro
10 Houston

For 1980????

Love Isolde, Sybilla, Aphra.

Happy not to be obsessed over the English bit - the only thing driving that was ds' name is old English but most people actually think it's not of English origin at all...

yy to Alice, but spelled the Middle English way which is Alys I think. wasn't it Chaucer's Wife of Bath's name? I like to think of it being pronounced more like "Ahhlis" than a short A sound.