Arthur is a common male name, meaning "bearlike," believed to possibly be descended from the Roman surname Artorius or the Celtic bear-goddess Artio or more probably from the celtic word artos (bear). Other Celtic languages have similar christian names, such as Old Irish Art, Artúur, Welsh Arth - which may also be the source for the modern name.

People

• King Arthur, the legendary British ruler and first recorded person to be named Arthur
• Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486–1502)
• Arthur Ashe (1943–1993), American athlete and author
• Arthur Balfour (1848–1930), British statesman
• Arthur C. Clarke (born 1917), British author
• Arthur Cravan (1887–1918?), British boxer, poet and pre-Dadaist
• Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), British writer, and creator of the character Sherlock Holmes
• Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944), British astrophysicist
• Arthur Fiedler (1894–1979), long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra
• Arthur Golden (born 1956), American author
• Arthur Griffith (1872–1922), founder and first leader of the Irish political movement Sinn Féin
• Arthur Koestler (1905–1983), Hungarian polymath
• Arthur Kornberg (born 1918), American biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1959
• Arthur Mafokate, South African kwaito musician and producer
• Arthur Miller (1915–2005), American playwright, essayist and author
• Arthur C. Miller (1895–1970), acclaimed American cinematographer
• Arthur Rackham (1867–1939), British book illustrator
• Arthur Rubin, (born 1956), American mathematician
• Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), German philosopher
• Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), English composer best known for his operatic collaborations with librettist W. S. Gilbert
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), Irish-born British soldier and statesman
• Beatrice Arthur (born 1923), American actress
• Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886), twenty-first President of the United States
• Jean Arthur (1900–1991), American actress

Fictional characters

• Arthur the Artificial Intelligence, a fictional character from the Journeyman Project computer games
• Arthur Read
• Arthur the chimpanzee, from Lillian Hoban's children's books
• Arthur (The Tick), sidekick of superhero The Tick
• Arthur Dent, a "mild-mannered Earthman" whose planet is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Arthur Spooner, a character on the television sitcom The King of Queens played by Jerry Stiller
• Arthur Weasley, from the Harry Potter universe
• Arthur Curry, the name of the DC Comics superhero known as Aquaman
• Arthur, a character in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
• Arthur the Knight from the Ghouls 'n Ghosts series.