"Elf" etymology and Albus Dumbledore

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160628

I was looking up "dwarf" to see if the correct plural was "dwarfs,"
(as in "Snow White and the . . ." or "Dwarves," as in Tolkien's works
(turns out that the first is preferred, but the second is an accpted
alternate form) and then decided to look up the plural of "elf" as
well. (I thought that "Elves" was Tolkien's invention; turns out that
"elves" is the accepted plural. It's only the capitalization of "Elf"
and "Dwarf" as "races" that's peculiar to Tolkien, apparently. 

However, in the midst of this pseudoscholarly research, I discovered
the following (from Merriam-Webster online):

?Main Entry: elf
Pronunciation: 'elf
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural elves /'elvz/
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English ælf; akin to Old Norse
alfr elf & perhaps to Latin albus white -- more at ALB
1 : a small often mischievous fairy
2 : a small lively creature; also : a usually lively mischievous or
malicious person" 

Obviously closer to JKR's house-elves, especially Kreacher, than to
Tolkien's magnificent immortals. But what caught my attention was the
connection of "elf" to "albus." Did JKR know? Did she name Dumbledore
Albus for this reason? Might the Dumbledore brothers have a distant
house-elf ancestor, which might account for Albus Dumbledore's ability
to do wandless magic? (I say distant because, unlike Flitwick, whom
JKR has stated somewhere has a goblin ancestor, the Dumbledore
brothers are normal sized. In fact, Albus, at least, is described as
tall and I believe that Aberforth is as well.)

Thoughts on this possibility, anyone?

Carol, who associates the name Albus with white (or light) magic but
wonders if there may be more to it than she previously thought