English, from Old German "God's peace" or "good peace", probably introduced to Britain with the Normans, replacing the Old English Godfrith.

Godfrey is sometimes used as a synonym for Geoffrey (both are given as Anglicized variants of the Scottish Gaelic name Goiridh) although these names are from different Old German sources. However we know of one case where the names are interchangeable so we have classed Geoffrey and Godfrey here as lesser synonyms.  Earlier forms of Godfrey were Gottfried or Gaufried.

In old documents Galfrius or Galfredus were used to represent either Geoffrey or Godfrey, with appropriate case endings.