This name derives from the Proto-Germanic name “*Rēdawulfaz”, Old High German “Radolf / Radulf”, Old English “Rǣdwulf”, via Old Norse “RáðulfR”, composed of two elements: “*rēdaz”, meaning “help, advise, counsel, decision” plus “*-wulfaz”, meaning “wolf”. The name is also connected to the Germanic name (Hroðulf / Hruodolf) but it is not from the same root. Radulf was the Duke of Thuringia (dux Thoringiae) from 632 or 633 (certainly before 634) until his death after 642. According to the Chronicle of Fredegar, he was a son of one Chamar, a Frankish aristocrat, and rose to power under the Merovingian king Dagobert I, who appointed him as dux in the former Thuringian kingdom which Frankia had conquered in 531.
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