Ethelred, the Unready Is a Nickname

The unready is a nickname. It comes from the old english unrad, which doesn't mean unready in the least. And it was only in the early modern period that people start misinterpreting this earlier term as meaning not being prepared,. and they then associate this with the perceived failings of ethelred. He actually seems to be a nickname that's probably coined in the post conquest period when he becomes kind of synonymous with the failures of anglo saxon england.