Alice Is Not in the Bible — and the Famous One Never Existed

Alice is not in the Bible. It came to English through the Old French Aalis, a worn-down Adelais, itself shortened from the Germanic Adalheidis — adal, noble, and heit, kind or sort. Of the noble kind. And its most famous bearer never existed, which turns out to be the interesting part. What does the name Alice mean? Of noble kind. The Normans brought Aalis to England, where it became one of the commonest names of the Middle Ages, went quiet…