Scandinavian boy names
This is the working name stock of Denmark, Norway and Sweden — the names on a nursery register in Aarhus or Uppsala right now. Most of them are not Viking at all: they are saints' names, biblical names and Roman names that came north with the church and were then filed down until they sounded Nordic. For Sigurd, Ragnar and Thorbjorn you want Norse names instead. The two lists barely overlap, and the difference matters.
Scandinavian names in the U.S. top 100
Two, and both of them travelled to America in the nineteenth century with Scandinavian emigrants before anyone thought of them as stylish.
- #79AxelAK-sulScandinavian
My father is peace. A medieval Danish contraction of Hebrew Absalom; the skating jump is named for Axel Paulsen, who first landed it in 1882.
- #81AugustAW-gustLatin
Venerable, consecrated. The German, Scandinavian and Polish clipping of Augustus, now at its highest American standing in over a century.
What Nordic parents are naming boys now
None of these is in the U.S. top 100, and most are rare in America. In Denmark, Norway and Sweden they are entirely ordinary — the equivalent of meeting a Jack or a Sam.
- ErikEH-rikScandinavian
Eternal ruler, or sole ruler — ei or ein plus ríkr. Sweden made it a throne name and never stopped using it.
- AntonAHN-tonScandinavian
From the Roman family name Antonius, whose own meaning is lost. A fixture near the top of current Nordic name lists.
- RasmusRAHS-mussDanish
Beloved, from Greek erasmios. Scandinavia wore Erasmus down from the front; southern Europe wore it down from the back and got Elmo.
- JensYENSDanish
The Lord is gracious. Johannes collapsed into one syllable, and Jensen — son of Jens — is what happened next.
- MadsMASSDanish
Gift of Yahweh. Mathias after Danish has finished with it; the d is silent, so it rhymes with pass.
- MikkelMIK-kelDanish
Who is like God — the Danish Michael. Mikkel Ræv is also the fox of Danish folk tales, which does the name no harm at all.
- FrederikFREDH-rekDanish
Peaceful ruler. Danish kings alternated between Frederik and Christian for three and a half centuries.
- KristianKRIS-tee-ahnDanish
A follower of Christ — the other half of that royal alternation, and the reason Denmark has so many of both.
- HenrikHEN-rikScandinavian
Ruler of the home, from Germanic heim and ríkr. The same ríkr that ends Erik and Frederik.
- JonasYOO-nassScandinavian
Dove — the Greek and Latin form of Hebrew Jonah, and one of the softest sounds in Nordic use.
- Andreasan-DRAY-assScandinavian
Manly, courageous, from Greek andreios. The full-dress form, kept in the north where English went to Andrew.
- AndersAHN-dursScandinavian
The same name worn short. Andersen and Andersson are simply his sons, and there are a great many of them.
- AkselAHK-selNorwegian
My father is peace — Axel spelled the Danish and Norwegian way, which is the spelling Norway prefers.
Traditional names
The grandfather layer: Nordic through and through, but mostly imported centuries ago and naturalised so thoroughly that nobody hears the join.
- LarsLARSSScandinavian
The Nordic Lawrence — man from Laurentum. Sankt Lars gave his name to half the parishes and all the Larssons.
- NilsNILSSScandinavian
Victory of the people — Nicholas, compressed. Nilsson and Nielsen follow from it in the usual way.
- SvenSVENSwedish
Young man, lad, squire. It was a rank in a household before it was anybody's name.
- KarlKARLGerman
Free man — the ordinary word for a man who owed nobody. Carl is the Swedish spelling and the royal one.
- HansHAHNSGerman
God is gracious. Another descendant of Johannes, shared with Germany and the Netherlands, and the name of Denmark's fairy-tale writer.
- GustavGUUS-tavSwedish
Traditionally staff of the Goths, though the etymology is genuinely disputed. Gustav Vasa took the Swedish crown in 1523.
- ValdemarVAL-duh-marDanish
Great ruler — and a Slavic name in Danish dress. Valdemar I was named for his Kievan great-grandfather, Vladimir Monomakh.
- VilhelmVIL-helmSwedish
Resolute protector — will plus helmet, the same pair that gives English William.
- Kristofferkris-TOF-ferScandinavian
Christ-bearer. The saint who carried the child across the river, and the patron of travellers.
- MagnusMAG-nusLatin
Great. A Latin adjective that Norway, Sweden and Denmark all turned into a royal name, and one of the few Nordic classics an English speaker can spell on hearing it.
- FredrikFRED-rikSwedish
Peaceful ruler, spelled the Swedish way. Denmark and Norway write Frederik; the missing e is the whole border.
- JohanYOO-hahnScandinavian
The Lord is gracious. Sweden kept Johan at full length where Denmark reduced the same name to Jens.
The Nordic word names
A small, distinctive habit: names that are simply nouns, still transparent to anyone who speaks the language. A Swedish Dag knows perfectly well that his name means day.
- DagDAHGNorwegian
Day. Dag Hammarskjöld ran the United Nations from 1953 until he was killed in a plane crash in 1961.
- StenSTAYNSwedish
Stone. Two men called Sten Sture governed Sweden as regents in the decades before the Vasa kings.
- RuneROO-nehNorwegian
Secret, hidden lore. Despite appearances it is a modern name, revived in the nineteenth century rather than carved on anything.
- JarlYARLScandinavian
Nobleman, earl — the English word earl is the same one. A title turned into a name, exactly as Sven was.
- ArneAR-nehNorwegian
Eagle. A short form of the older ǫrn compounds that outlived every one of them.
- BjarneBYAR-nehDanish
Bear cub — the Danish and Norwegian softening of Bjørn, with the diminutive built in.
- AlfALFScandinavian
Elf. Not a joke and not a diminutive of Alfred: the Old Norse álfr, a being the north took entirely seriously.
- AlvarAHL-varSwedish
Elf warrior, or elf guardian — the same álfr with a fighter attached.
How Scandinavian naming works
You cannot call a Danish child whatever you like. Denmark maintains an official register of approved first names, tens of thousands of them, and a parent who wants something outside it has to apply to the authorities and have the name assessed before it can be entered in the register of births. Sweden and Norway are looser but still legislate: a Swedish name must be registered with the tax agency within three months of birth and can be refused. Iceland goes furthest, with a naming committee that rules on new names and on whether they can take Icelandic grammatical endings. The practical effect across the region is a shallow, shared pool of names that changes slowly, which is why the same twenty or thirty boys' names cover so much of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, with only the spelling shifting at the borders — Frederik and Fredrik, Aksel and Axel, Kristoffer and Christoffer.
Surnames tell the other half of the story. Before the nineteenth century nobody here had one: Jens Pedersen's son Peder was Peder Jensen, whose son Jens was Jens Pedersen again, the pair alternating down the generations. Then the Nordic states legislated fixed, heritable family names, and whatever patronymic a household happened to be carrying at that moment was frozen in place — which is why Jensen, Nielsen, Hansen, Larsson, Andersson and Eriksson now account for such an extraordinary share of Nordic surnames. Every one of them is an ordinary given name from around 1800 with a date stamp on it. That living, church-fed layer is what this page collects. The mythological and saga names sit on Norse names, and the country-by-country lists are on the origins index.