Theoden

Tolkien gave Théoden to the ruler of Rohan in his Middle-earth stories. Tolkien drew the name from an Old English word for a ruler or king, giving the fictional character a name that also reflects his office. The word’s background concerns leadership of a people, not the Greek element for God found in Theodore.

Tolkien used Old English forms to represent the language and names of Rohan within his imagined translation of the story. That makes Theoden both a literary choice and a name with a real historical-language source. The accented spelling Théoden preserves the familiar form from the books, while Theoden is often used where diacritics are omitted.