How have names such as Aethelflaed, Aethelwold, Aethelred, Aethelhelm etc evolved and what name's are they the roots of today?

by PaulyBinya
BRIStoneman

Unfortunately, Æthel- names seem to have dropped out of common use in the decades after The Conquest, although the "Æthel" element itself survives in the female name Ethel, and Æđelberga survives in a far more limited context as Bertha.

Plenty of Old English names have survived to the modern day, though; whether through the 19th Century pop cultural interest in the Anglo-Saxons which has led to some of them becoming "classic" English names, or just a perennial popularity. Edward, Edmund, Edwin, Alfred, Robert (Hrođberht), Oswald (now somewhat less popular thanks to the BUF), Edith, and Margaret, for example, were all in common use in Early Medieval England. That's not to say that there haven't been the odd "Æthel-"s here and there; the 19th century fascination with the Anglo-Saxons certainly left its mark on late 19th and early 20th century naming conventions. The first British pilot to shoot down a Zeppelin in WWI, for example, had the striking name of Wulfstan Tempest.