Etymology
The origin of Attila's name is unclear. Menander used the term Attila as the name of the Volga River. Pritsak considers it to mean "universal ruler" in a Turkic language related to Danube Bulgarian.
Maenchen-Helfen suggests an East Germanic origin and rejects a Turkic etymology: "Attila is formed from Gothic or Gepidic atta, "father", by means of the diminutive suffix -ila." He finds Pritsak's etymology "ingenious but for many reasons unacceptable". However, he suggests that these names were
not the true names of the Hun princes and lords. What we have are Hunnic names in Germanic dress, modified to fit the Gothic tongue, or popular Gothic etymologies, or both. Mikkola thought Attila might go back to Turkish atlïg, "famous"; Poucha finds in it Tokharian atär, "hero." The first etymology is too farfetched to be taken seriously, the second is nonsense.The name has many variants in modern languages: Atli and Atle in Norse, Attila/Atilla/Etele in Hungarian (Attila is the most popular), Etzel in German Nibelungenlied, Attila, Atilla, Atilay or Atila in Turkish, and Adil and Edil in Kazakh.
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