... The accurate and learned historian Freeman declares "there is no ascertained case of a strictly hereditary surname in England before the conquest" (1066) but the germ of the surname is found in the names of the early English kings; from Egbert to Alfred the great (837-871) four successive kings had names beginning with "AETHEL" (our "Ethel") meaning "noble"; for a king to bear the name Aethelwulf (noble wolf) is ample testimony to a primitive and very likely a fierce state of society; nineteen descendants of Alfred the great had names beginning with "Ead" (meaning "wealth," the "e" pronounced like "y") or with "aethel"; the last king with the latter name Aethelred (978-1016) or "noble counsel" certainly seems to give cause for hope that the times were not quite so wild as when "noble wolf" was king (837-858)... (G.H. Johnson)