In the Middle Ages, a childe or child (from Old English: Cild "Young Lord") was a nobleman's son who had not yet attained knighthood or had not yet won his spurs. As a rank in chivalry it was used as a title, e.g. Child Horn in King Horn, whilst a male progressed through the positions of squire and then knight. The term is now obsolete in standard English but is still well-known from poetry, such as Robert Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came and Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

An English-Serbian scientist, Dejan Đuričić, M.Sc., wrote a book ("Dream, Dremati", Belgrade, 2015) in which he states the possibility that the word "child" comes from the old Serbian word for child - "čeljad".

However, the word is still used in the local Doric dialect of north-east Scotland. Here it may be directly translated as 'fellow' or 'man' into Standard English. For example, a working childe would mean a working man, while a dour childe would indicate a taciturn individual.