The personal names of the earliest period are in many cases
untranslateable–that is to say, as with the first stratum of Greek
names, they bear no obvious meaning in the language as we know it.
Others are names of animals or natural objects. Unlike the later
historical cognomens, they each consist, as a rule, of a single element,
not of two elements in composition. Such are the names which we get in
the narrative of the colonization and in the mythical genealogies;
Hengest, Horsa, Æsc, Ælle, Cymen, Cissa, Bieda, Mægla; Ceol, Penda,
Offa, Blecca; Esla, Gewis, Wig, Brand, and so forth. A few of these
names (such as Penda and Offa), are undoubtedly historical; but of the
rest, some seem to be etymological blunders, like Port and Wihtgar;
others to be pure myths, like Wig and Brand; and others, again, to be
doubtfully true, like Cerdic, Cissa, and Bieda, eponyms, perhaps, of
Cerdices-ford, Cissan-ceaster, and Biedan-heafod.

In the truly historical age, the clan system seems to have died out, and
each person bore, as a rule, only a single personal name. These names
are almost invariably compounded of two elements, and the elements thus
employed were comparatively few in number. Thus, we get the root
_æthel_, noble, as the first half in Æthelred, Æthelwulf, Æthelberht,
Æthelstan, and Æthelbald. Again, the root _ead_, rich, or powerful,
occurs in Eadgar, Eadred, Eadward, Eadwine, and Eadwulf. _Ælf_, an elf,
forms the prime element in Ælfred, Ælfric, Ælfwine, Ælfward, and
Ælfstan. These were the favourite names of the West-Saxon royal house;
the Northumbrian kings seem rather to have affected the syllable _os_,
divine, as in Oswald, Oswiu, Osric, Osred, and Oslaf. _Wine_, friend, is
a favourite termination found in Æscwine, Eadwine, Æthelwine, Oswine,
and Ælfwine, whose meanings need no further explanation. _Wulf_ appears
as the first half in Wulfstan, Wulfric, Wulfred, and Wulfhere; while it
forms the second half in Æthelwulf, Eadwulf, Ealdwulf, and Cenwulf.