The Germanic people have a history of being war-like and fierce an their names reflect that. Children of both genders had names that were perceived to be strong. For example the naem "Gertrude" combines the element "gar," meaning spear, with "trude" meaning strength. So Gertrude means strong spear. Germanic names are usually made by bringing together two elemments such as:

bert "bright, famous"

dis "goddess"

ed, ead "rich", "prosperous"

eg, "edge of a sword"

frid, fred, frit "peace"

gar, ger "spear"

hard "hardy, brave"

her "army" or "warrior"

hug, hu "heart, mind, spirit"

hild "battle"

mond, mund "protector"

os "a god, divine"

rad, red "counsel" or "wise"

ric, rich "power" or "ruler"

sig "victory"

stein, stan, sten "stone"

wald, vald "power"

ward "guard"

win "friend"

These are some of the elements that could be combined to form an Old English name.