Jeffrey

English

Medieval variant of Geoffrey. In America, Jeffrey has been more common than Geoffrey, though this is not true in Britain, meaning "From a Norman French form of a Germanic name. The second element is Germanic frid "peace", but the first element may be either gawia "territory", walha "foreign" or gisil "hostage". It is possible that two or more names merged into a single form. In the later Middle Ages Geoffrey was further confused with the distinct name Godfrey."