Late Antiquity To Early Middle Ages
The earliest record of the name is in a Roman-era (3rd century) inscription, discovered in 1784 in Wiesbaden (at the time known as Aquae Mattiacorum in Germania Superior), edited in Codex inscriptionum romanarum Danubii et Rheni as no. 684: IN. H. D. D. APOLLINI. TOVTIORIGI, interpreted as In honorem domus divinae, Apolloni toutiorigi. This has given rise to a supposed "Apollo Teutorix" in 19th-century literature. Rhys (1892) opined that "the interest attached to the word Toutiorix is out of all proportion to its single occurrence". The existence of a genuinely Celtic name Teutorix or Toutiorix is uncertain. Rhys surmises that the "historical Teuton" (viz. Theodoric the Great) bore a name of the Gaulish Apollo as adopted into early Germanic religion.
The first known bearer of the name was Theodoric I, son of Alaric I, king of the Visigoths (d. 451). The Gothic form of the name would have been Þiudareiks, which was Latinized as Theodericus. The notability of the name is due to Theodoric the Great, son of Theodemir, king of the Ostrogoths (454–526), who became a legendary figure of the Germanic Heroic Age as Dietrich von Bern.
After the end of Late Antiquity, during the 6th to 8th century there were also several kings of the Franks called Theodoric (or Theuderic). Finally, there was an early Anglo-Saxon king of Bernicia called Theodric (also spelled Deoric, Old English Þēodrīc).
- Theodoric I (died 451), king of the Visigoths
- Theodoric II (died 466), king of the Visigoths
- Theodoric the Great (454–526), ruler of the Ostrogoths, Italy, and the Visigoths
- Theodoric Strabo (died 481)
- Theuderic I (died ca. 534), Frankish king
- Theuderic II (587–613), Frankish king
- Theuderic III (died 691), king of the Franks
- Theuderic IV (died 737), king of the Franks
- Theodric of Bernicia, 6th century Anglo-Saxon king
- Saint Tewdrig (alternatively Tewdric or Theodoric) (c. 580 – c. 630), Welsh king of Gwent and Glywysing, who was martyred fighting the Saxons
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