Jeffrey is a common English given name, and a variant form of the name Geoffrey (itself from a Middle French variant of Godfrey, Gottfried).[1]
| Pronunciation | /ˈdʒɛfri/ JEF-ree |
|---|---|
| Gender | masculine |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Francia, medieval France, Norman England |
| Other names | |
| Derived | Godfrey, Gottfried |
| Related names | Geoffrey, Jeff, Jeffry, Jeffy, Jefrey, Jeffery, Jeffeory Jefferson |
It has been argued that the common derivation of Middle French Geoffrey, Jeffery from Godfrey is mistaken, and that the names reflect two separate first Germanic elements god vs. gaut, which became conflated in Old High German by the end of the early medieval period.[2]
Outside of North America, Geoffrey is more common than Jeffrey. Jeffrey and its variants are found as surnames, usually as a patronymic ending in -s (e.g., Jefferies, Jaffrays); The surname Jefferson is also a patronymic version of the given name. In Scotland, Jeffrey is most frequently found to be a surname.
Variations include Jeff, Jeffry, Jeffy, Jeffery, Geoff, Geoffrey, Jeffeory, Geffrey, Jefferson, and Jeffro.
People with the name Jeffrey
Academia
- Jeffrey Cole, American anthropologist
- Jeffrey Garten, Juan Trippe professor of international trade, finance and business, and former dean of Yale School of Management
- Jeffrey Hackney, legal academic and former Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford
- Jeffrey A. Hoffman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Jeffrey Kaplan (academic), American academic who has written and edited several books
- Jeffrey Lagarias, professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan
- Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law at George Washington University Law School
- Jeffrey Sachs, professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York
Art
- Jeffrey Schiff, American artist
- Jeffrey Steele (artist), British abstract artist
Business
- Jeffrey Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com
- Jeffrey Cheah, founder of Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group
- Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation Inc.
- Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks SKG and CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG
- Jeffrey Rosen, American billionaire businessman
- Jeffrey Steinberger, trial lawyer and founder of law firm, judge pro tem, adjunct law professor, TV legal analyst
Crime
- Jeffrey Dahmer, American cannibalistic serial killer and sex offender
- Jeffrey Dampier, American lottery winner who was murdered
- Jeffrey "Jeff" Doucet, American pedophile murdered by Gary Plauche
- Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and serial sex offender
- Jeffrey Russell Hall, American political extremist killed by his son
- Jeffrey R. MacDonald, American former physician convicted of killing his family
Entertainment
- Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter, Jamaican film and television actor
- Jeffrey Ching, British contemporary classical composer
- Jeffrey Combs, American character actor best known for his horror film roles
- Jeffrey Daniel, American singer and dancer with the soul group Shalamar
- Jeffrey DeMunn, American actor
- Jeffrey Donovan, American actor
- Jeffrey Goldblum, American film and television actor
- Jeffrey Hunter, American film and television actor
- Jeffrey Jones, American actor
- Jeffrey Isbell (Izzy Stradlin), American musician
- Jeffrey Kaplan (game designer), Vice President for Blizzard Entertainment
- Jeffrey Katzenberg, American film producer
- Jeffrey Lewis, American musician and comic artist
- Jeffrey Lyons, American television and film critic
- Jeffrey Marsh, American writer, activist actor, artist and author
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan, American actor
- Jeffrey Nordling, American actor
- Jeffrey Osborne, American singer–songwriter, musician and lyricist
- Jeffrey Reiner, film director and producer
- Jeffrey D. Sams, American actor
- Jeffrey Shih, American video game player
- Jeffrey Steele, American singer and songwriter
- Jeffrey Tambor, American actor
- Jeffrey Toobin, American commentator and writer
- Jeffrey Wright (actor), American film and television actor
Literature
- Jeffrey Archer, English author and former politician
- Jeffrey Brown (comics), American comic book writer and artist
- Jeffrey Carver, American science fiction author
- Jeffrey Daniels (author), Chicago-raised African American poet, artist, and professor
- Jeffrey Eugenides, American novelist and short story writer of Greek and Irish origins
- Jeffrey Ford, American novelist and story writer
- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Sanskrit specialist and author who trained as a psychoanalyst in Toronto
- Jeffrey Rowland, American webcomic artist
- Jeffrey Simpson, American-born Canadian journalist and national affairs columnist with The Globe and Mail newspaper
- Jeffrey S. Williams, American writer and Civil War historian
Military
- Jeffrey Chessani, former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps
- Jeffrey Feinstein, former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force
- Jeffrey J. Schloesser, former major general in the U.S. Army
- Jeffrey Williams (astronaut), former U.S. Army officer and astronaut
Sport
- Jeffrey Buttle, Canadian figure skater
- Jeffrey Carlson, retired American hockey player, one of the fictional Hanson Brothers from the film, "Slap Shot"
- Jeffrey Finley, Canadian football player
- Jeffrey Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, US former college basketball player
- Jeffrey Lay, Canadian rower
Fictional characters
- Jeffrey P. Brookes III, a character on the TV sitcom The Ropers
- Jeffrey Dexter "Jeff" Boomhauer III, one of the main characters on the animated Fox Network TV series King of the Hill, voiced by Mike Judge
- Jeffrey Goines, one of the main characters in the 1995 science fiction film 12 Monkeys, played by Brad Pitt
- Jeffrey Matthews a.k.a. Moondoggie is a character in the film Gidget, the two sequels Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome, played by James Darren
- Jeffrey Michener, a character in the TV series The Last Ship, played by Mark Moses
- Jeffrey Sinclair, one of the main characters in the 1990s science fiction TV series Babylon 5, played by Michael O'Hare
See also
References
- ^ Behind the Name: Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Geoffrey
- ^ Albert Dauzat, Noms et prénoms de France, Librairie Larousse 1980, édition revue et commentée par Marie-Thérèse Morlet. p. 287b - 288a - 296ab.
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