text: Beowulf Henry Sweet, a philologist and linguist specializing in Germanic languages, proposed that the name Bēowulf literally means in Old English "bee-wolf" or "bee-hunter" and that it is a kenning for "bear". Recorded instances of similar names mirror this etymology. The 1031 AD Liber Vitae records the name Biuuuwulf. The name is attested to a monk from Durham and means bee wolf in the Old Northumbrian dialect. The 11th century English Domesday Book contains a recorded instance of the name Beulf. The scholar  suggested that the name Beowulf derived from a mistranslation of Böðvarr with -varr interpreted as vargr meaning "wolf".
  However, Sophus Bugge questioned this etymology, and instead suggested that the personage Böðvarr Bjarki derived from Beowulf.
  Beow-Wolf
  In 2005, Andy Orchard theorized an etymology on the basis of the common Old Norse name Þórólfr (which literally translates to "Thor Wolf"), stating in parallel that a "more likely" meaning for the name would be the "wolf" of the Germanic god Beow.
  Biewolf
  English philologist Walter William Skeat proposed an etymological origin in a term for "Woodpecker" citing the Old Dutch term biewolf for the bird. Skeat states that the black woodpecker is common in Norway and Sweden and further reasons that the "indominatable nature" and that the "bird fights to the death" might have influenced the choice of the name. This etymological origin has been criticized as not being in accordance to Grimm's law and Skeat may have recanted the proposal at a later date.
  Beado-Wulf (war wolf)
  The editors of Bosworth's monumental dictionary of Anglo-Saxon propose that Beowulf is a variant of beado-wulf meaning "war wolf" and that it is cognate with the Icelandic Bodulfr which also means "war wolf".