Viking Names: Over 130 Authentic Nordic Names, Meanings, and Pronunciation

Sources: Insee, 2023 name file (calculations performed by us) · Rollo, Wikipedia · Landnámabók · Egil's Saga · Rurik. The meanings of the names follow Old Norse dictionaries (Lind, Nordic Names); "debated" indicates cases where philologists are not in agreement.

How a Viking name was created

A Viking name is almost never a solitary word: it is a combination of two elements drawn from a common stock shared by the entire Germanic world. One would take a god (Þór, Ás, Ing), a virtue (sigr "victory," friðr "peace"), or an animal (bjǫrn "bear," úlfr "wolf," arn "eagle"), and combine them with an ending: -steinn "stone," -geirr "spear," -hildr "battle," -ríðr "beautiful," -dís "divine woman." Þorsteinn is "Thor's stone"; Ástríðr is "divine beauty"; Sigurðr is "guardian of victory." The meaning was not always taken literally, any more than a Peter is literally a rock, but each element remained understood.

Alongside these compound names exist simple names, often referring to animals or objects: Bjǫrn, Úlfr, Hrafn "raven," Ormr "serpent," Steinn "stone," Oddr "arrowhead," Ketill "cauldron." And short forms, which abbreviate a compound name: Tófa for Þórfríðr, Gyða for a name ending in Guð-, Ása for a name starting with Ás-. This is how Scandinavians themselves addressed their loved ones.

Naming after the dead

Names were chosen within the family, preferably from those who had passed. The sagas demonstrate this rule in action: in Egil's Saga, Skalla-Grímr names his first son Þórólfr, after his own brother who was killed in the king's service, and it was said the child would inherit the deceased's luck. Another custom involved varying one element from one generation to the next: a Þorsteinn names his son Þorgeirr, a Ragnhildr names her daughter Ragna. The name identified the lineage before the individual.

Water, naming, and gifts

Newborns received their names during a rite described in several sagas and even in the Poetic Edda: the father would take the child on his lap, sprinkle them with water (ausa vatni), and pronounce the name. This gesture, predating Christian baptism, brought the child into the family; before this, the newborn had no social existence. The naming was often accompanied by a gift, the nafnfesti, or "name-fixing," which could be a ring, a weapon, or land. Our Viking funeral rites recount the other end of life, which was equally codified.

The ausa vatni: the father sprinkles the child with water and pronounces their name, a rite predating Christian baptism.

Nicknames, more real than given names

One in two Vikings is known to us by their nickname. Haraldr hárfagri, "Finehair"; Eiríkr blóðøx, "Bloodaxe"; Ívarr beinlausi, "the Boneless"; Ketill flatnefr, "Flatnose"; Auðr djúpúðga, "the Deep-Minded"; Ragnarr loðbrók, "Shaggy Breeches." With a limited stock of names, nicknames served to distinguish between homonyms, and they were rarely flattering. It is these that have survived in our memory: we say Erik the Red, not Eiríkr Þorvaldsson.

Eiríksson, Eiríksdóttir: no family names

Scandinavians of the Viking Age had no family names. People were identified by their given name followed by the father's name: Leifr Eiríksson, "Erik's son"; Freydís Eiríksdóttir, "Erik's daughter." More rarely, they used the mother's name, if she was more illustrious or the father was absent. This system has never disappeared in Iceland, where the telephone directory is still organized by first name, and where President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was named so because her father's name was Finnbogi.

Viking names for boys: the list with sources

Here are seventy-two male first names attested in the sagas, the Eddas, runestones, or chronicles, with their Old Norse form, their meaning, and, when possible, a man who bore it. The modern form is the one currently found in Scandinavian countries; it is also the only one that the French civil registry will accept without question, as the letters þ, ð, and ǫ do not exist in its alphabet.

Runestones are our primary source of first names: thousands of names of fathers, sons, and brothers engraved in the 11th century.

Viking names for a girl: the list with sources

Fifty-nine female names, using the same method. We find valkyries and goddesses here, but above all real women: the settler Aud, the traveler Guðríðr who went as far as Rome, the poetess Jórunn, Queen Thyra whose name is engraved on the Jelling stone. Nordic female names express the same things as the masculine ones: battle, protection, the gods; they were not reserved for gentleness.

Aud the Deep-Minded, Auðr djúpúðga: a woman at the head of a settler ship, circa 890, and one of the oldest attested first names.

Viking names given in France: what the INSEE says

We read everywhere that "Viking names are in fashion". We wanted to know if this was true, and the only way is to read the INSEE file of first names, which lists every first name given in France since 1900, year by year. Here, for the first names in this article, are the births in 2023, the total for the last eleven years, and what the trend line says. A clarification: INSEE only publishes a first name if it has been given at least three times in the year; a first name absent from the table does not necessarily have zero births, but it has fewer than three.

The data reveals three surprises. The first: the most popular Viking name given in France is neither Ragnar nor Odin; it is Liv, with four hundred and twenty-one baby girls in 2023, five times more than in 2013. The second: the series did leave a mark, but a modest one. Björn rose from six births in 2014 to fifty-nine in 2021; Ivar appeared in 2015, Lagertha in 2017; however, Ragnar never exceeded nine births per year, and Floki, Ubbe, Rollo, Aslaug, or Torvi did not even reach the threshold for public recording. The third: the Viking name that has left the biggest mark on France is Éric, the French form of Eiríkr, given more than three hundred thousand times, including twenty thousand in 1965 alone. There are also the older waves: Ingrid peaked in 1976 with 1,720 births, and Olga, the Russian form of Helga, in 1902, during the era of the Franco-Russian Alliance.

Finally, several names of gods are indeed being given: Odin to about forty boys each year, Freya and Freyja to more than a hundred girls, while Thor and Loki remain below the threshold of three. Our article on Odin explains what this name carries with it.

Viking names that became French, English, and Russian

In Normandy, they became surnames

When Rollo received Normandy in 911, his men bore Old Norse names. Two or three generations later, they spoke French, but their names became fixed as surnames, which thousands of Normans still carry today. An Anquetil descends from an Ásketill, a Toutain from a Þorsteinn, an Osmond from an Ásmundr. Rollo himself was called Hrólfr, "glorious wolf," and his name gave rise to Rolf, Raoul, and Rodolphe. Our article on Rollo tells his true story.

Place names retain the same trace: Toutainville, Tourgéville, Quettehou ("Ketill's hill"), Anquetot, and all the villages ending in -tot, -bec, -fleur, -hou, and -ville preceded by a Scandinavian name.

Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, 911: Hrólfr becomes Rollo, and the names of his men will become Norman surnames.

In Russia, they became Igor, Oleg, and Olga

The Swedish Vikings, the Varangians, founded the first principalities of future Russia. Their leader Rurik, who settled in Novgorod in 862, was called Hrœrekr; his successor Oleg was a Helgi; Prince Igor, an Yngvarr; and Princess Olga, the first Christian sovereign of Kiev, a Helga. Four of the most classic Russian names are therefore Viking names, and Igor and Olga even made the journey to France, where they have been given more than twenty-seven thousand times since 1900.

In England, they are hidden in common names

The Danelaw, the northeastern half of England colonized by the Danes, left behind names that appear English: Ronald and Reginald come from Rǫgnvaldr, Osborne from Ásbjǫrn, Harold from Haraldr, Eric from Eiríkr. King Harold, defeated at Hastings in 1066, bore an Old Norse name; the man who defeated him, William, was a descendant of Rollo.

On the Dnieper: the Varangians Rurik, Oleg, and Igor left their names to Russia.

The names in the Vikings series: which ones are real?

The series brought these names back into circulation, and INSEE confirms it. But they are not all the same: some are authentic names worn by fictional characters, others are real historical figures displaced in time, and at least one, Lagertha, is a 12th-century Latin form that no Viking ever actually pronounced. Our articles on Ragnar Lothbrok and on the series versus history detail each case; here are the essentials.

How to pronounce a Viking name

Old Norse forms can look intimidating, but they follow simple rules. The accent always falls on the first syllable: RAG-nar, SI-gurd, AS-trid. The þ is pronounced like the English th in thing, and the ð like the th in this: Þórr gives "Thor," Sigurðr roughly "Sigourthr." The j is always said like a "y": Bjǫrn is pronounced "byeurn," Freyja "Fréya." The ǫ and ö sound like the "eu" in the French word peur, the Norwegian å like a long "o": Håkon is said "Hôkone." The accented vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú) are long. The final double rr of Ragnarr or Ívarr is a grammatical nominative marker: modern forms have dropped it, and you can do the same.

In today's Scandinavian countries, each language has its own spelling: Torbjørn in Norway and Denmark, Torbjörn in Sweden, Þorbjörn in Iceland. For a child born in France, the Norwegian or Danish form, without special letters, is the one that will be universally accepted.

A Viking name for a dog or a cat

Many readers look for an animal name here, and mythology provides better ones than a list of kings. For a dog: Fenrir or Fenris, the giant wolf; Geri and Freki, Odin's two wolves; Garm, the dog guarding the kingdom of the dead; Sköll and Hati, the wolves that chase the sun and the moon; Ylva, "she-wolf". For a cat, the animal of Freya: Freya herself, Loki for a difficult personality, Skadi for a hunter, Mjöll, "fresh snow," for a white cat, Hugin or Munin for a black one. And for a horse, Sleipnir, Odin's horse, or Grani, Sigurd's horse.

Writing your name in runes

Once the name is chosen, the next question is almost always the same: how do I write it in runes? The Vikings used the Younger Futhark, only sixteen signs, which requires some compromises: there is no letter for d, g, or p, which are noted with the neighboring rune. Our rune converter performs the transcription for you, and our guide on learning to write runes explains the rules. To wear the result, our runic rings and beads engraved with the Futhark are in the Viking necklaces section.

Frequently asked questions about Viking names

May the Aesir guide you on the path of honor.