Swedish3 syllablesOutside the U.S. top 100
Meaning: famous through Ing; renowned of the god Ing.
Ingemar
The boxer who took the world heavyweight title from Floyd Patterson was Ingemar. The film director half the world half-remembers as Ingemar Bergman was Ingmar. One letter, and Swedes notice it.
| Origin | Swedish — from the Old Norse Ingimarr |
|---|---|
| Meaning | The god-name element Ing (Yngvi, an older name of the fertility god Freyr) + mærr, famous or renowned |
| Pronunciation | ING-eh-mar, stress on the first syllable; the final syllable is short, not "mahr" |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 and never established there; in Sweden a well-worn name of the mid-twentieth century |
| Variants | Ingmar (the contracted Swedish and Dutch form), Ingemar and Ingmar both current in Sweden, Ingimar (Icelandic) |
| Nicknames | Inge, and in Sweden also Ingge |
| Often confused with | Ingmar Bergman, who was Ernst Ingmar — no second e. The director's name is the short form, not this one |
History & meaning
Ingemar is a compound of the ordinary Norse type, and both halves are worth having. The second, mærr, means famous or renowned, and it closes a number of old Germanic names in the same position where English has the ending of Delmar or the German ‑mar of Waldemar. The first is the god. Ing, or Yngvi, is an older name of Freyr, who governed fertility, peace and a good harvest, and whom the Ynglings — the legendary royal line of the Swedes — claimed as their ancestor. That single syllable opens an unusually large family of Nordic names: Yngve is the god's name used bare, Ingvar is Ing plus a warrior element, and Inge is the short form all of them collapse into.
Ingimarr was in use in the Viking Age and stayed in Swedish continuously afterwards, contracting along the way to Ingmar. Both spellings are live in Sweden today, and the split is the sort of thing Swedes will correct you on. Ingemar had its peak among boys born between the 1930s and the 1960s, which is precisely when its two most famous bearers arrived.
Why parents choose it
Rarely for the etymology, usually for the sound and the family tree. Three syllables give it a formality that shorter Swedish names lack, and the Inge- opening feels rooted in a way that borrowed international names do not. For non-Swedes, the appeal is that a genuinely pre-Christian god-name is hiding inside something that reads as perfectly ordinary.
Middle names for Ingemar
Three syllables want one or two after them, not four: Ingemar Nils, Ingemar Karl, Ingemar Johan, Ingemar Erik. The middle names guide works through the rhythm in detail.
Famous Ingemars
Ingemar Johansson knocked Floyd Patterson down seven times in the third round at Yankee Stadium on 26 June 1959 and left as world heavyweight champion; he lost the title back to Patterson a year later. Ingemar Stenmark won 86 World Cup races, a total no alpine skier has passed, and took both the slalom and the giant slalom at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
Consider instead
Ingvar keeps the god and swaps fame for a warrior element. Yngve is the deity's name on its own, shorter and considerably rarer. Hjalmar belongs to the same Swedish generation and means helmeted warrior.