57 Old Norse Baby Girl Names With Meanings

The language of North Germany; spoken in Scandinavia, the Faroe Island, Iceland, Greenland and parts of Russia, Old Norse is the language of the Vikings or Norseman. The language had the scope of describing a range of feelings like tough and strong like Bjami; lovely and delicate like Dahlia. The language brings to imagine the picture of God Thor and his thunderous hammer. Old Norse names were given after deceased heroes or relatives anticipating that children will inherit characters of the deceased.

Old Norse baby girl names were feminine and strong, justifying the Viking Age women. Baby girls had strong names like "Vigdis" where "vig" meant battle or combat and "dis" meant goddess or names like Ragnhild were also common. Ragnhild meant an advisor or decision-maker in battle. It is noteworthy that Norse names are composed of two words that together give rise to a new meaning. The names are English forms of Old Norse but still very close to the original.

The naming was unique in the Scandinavian culture. If a relative died when the child was in a mother's womb, the child needed to bore the name of that relative. This was considered as an honor to that relative. If the honored relative and the ancestor shared a common name, then the ancestor's nickname was also attached to the baby's name. This meant that the names of babies remained the same for a long time in the families. The names of Norse Gods and Goddesses were also popular for use as first names. Norse names did not have a trend of surnames. Instead, a patronymic or metronymic system was used.

Keen on knowing the Scandinavian naming culture already? We have a list of baby girls names in Old Norse to give you an insight into the same.