Geoffrey

From a Norman French form of a Frankish name, Geoffrey combines the Old German fridu meaning “peace” with a first element that may be * gautaz “Geat,” gawi “territory,” or walah “foreigner,” and it may reflect the merger of two or more names; in the later Middle Ages it was also confused with the separate name Godfrey. The Normans brought it to England, where it became common among the nobility, and notable medieval bearers included the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth and the 14th-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales. Although uncommon by the end of the Middle Ages, it was revived in the 20th century, often as Jeffrey.

Geoffrey moved from #850 to #992 for boys between 2004 and 2005. Its highest annual birth count came in 1975, with 1,395 births.