Eirik the Red. Harald Fairhair. Ivar the Boneless. Eirik Bloodaxe. Few people in history have been as good at names as the Vikings. A Viking name tied a child to family and to the gods. Later, a nickname told the world what kind of person you were dealing with. Here is how Viking names worked, what they meant, and how to find your own.
How a Viking Child Was Named
A newborn was not simply handed a name. Instead, someone poured water over the baby and spoke its name aloud, a custom called ausa vatni, “pouring water.” Often the father did it. Important families, however, chose the person with care. As the Heimskringla puts it, “it was the custom, with people of consideration, to choose with great care the man who should pour water over their children, and give them a name.” So when King Harald Fairhair’s son was born, Earl Sigurd “poured water over him, and called him Hakon.” That baby grew up to be King Hakon the Good.
Names also ran in families. Earl Sigurd named that baby after his own father, Earl Hakon of Lade. In the same way, Eirik the Red named one of his sons Thorvald, after Eirik’s father. In fact, people believed that a child named for a respected relative who had died carried on some of that person’s luck.
Viking Names and Their Meanings
Most Viking first names meant something. What is more, many came from a small set of building blocks.
The gods – Names beginning with Thor- were hugely popular: Thorstein (“Thor’s stone”), Thorbjorn (“Thor’s bear”) and, for girls, Thorgerd and Thorbjorg. Others began with As-, meaning “god,” as in the Aesir: Asgeir for a boy and Astrid for a girl.
Animals – Bjorn means bear, Ulf wolf, Orm serpent and Arn eagle. Moreover, put two together and you get Arnbjorn, “eagle-bear.”
Qualities – Frida means “peace.” Hilda, on the other hand, means “battle,” and Sigrid combines “victory” with “beautiful.”
Because two short parts could be joined in many ways, parents had a large stock of names to choose from, and each one still said something about the child.
Son Of, Daughter Of
First of all, Vikings had no family surnames. Instead, most people were known as their father’s child. Eirik the Red was Eirik Thorvaldsson. His son Leif, who led one of the first European voyages to North America, was Leif Eiriksson. Daughters added -dottir: Eirik’s wife, Thjodhild, was Thjodhild Jorundsdottir.
Occasionally a child took the mother’s name instead, usually when she outranked the father. The Danish king Svein Estridsson (died c. 1076) took his name from his royal mother, Estrid. Iceland still names people this way today. As a result, an Icelandic phone book lists people by first name.
In addition, we know many of these names because Vikings carved them in stone. Thousands of runestones still stand in Scandinavia, and most of them say who raised the stone and for whom.
Viking Nicknames: Fairhair, Bloodaxe and the Boneless
Parents chose a first name at birth. A nickname, by contrast, you had to earn, and the Vikings were blunt about it. The best ones fall into a few groups:
Looks – Harald Fairhair, Ketil Flatnose, Thorkel the Tall and, probably, Eirik the Red. Historians still debate what gave Harald Bluetooth his name.
Clothes – Ragnar Lothbrok, “Shaggy-Breeches.”
Character and deeds – Eirik Bloodaxe, Harald Hardrada (“hard ruler”) and Aud the Deep-Minded, one of the great settlers of Iceland.
Plain rude – Eystein Fart, who is exactly who he sounds like.
Even so, some nicknames are still a puzzle. Ivar the Boneless may have had a medical condition, or the name may have been a joke. Either way, it stuck for more than a thousand years.
Viking Names You Still Hear Today
Viking names never really went away. For example, Eric, Harold, Ingrid, Astrid and Sigrid are all Viking names, and Danish children are still called Rune, Erik and Tove. The Vikings named places as well. In England, towns ending in -by, like Derby, Grimsby and Whitby, grew from Viking farmsteads. Finally, even the calendar remembers them, since Thursday is Thor’s day.
Find Your Own Viking Name
Now that you know how it worked, try it yourself. Our free Viking name generator builds your name the way the Norse did: a real Old Norse first name, a father’s name or a nickname, and the whole thing carved in runes. Then look up the gods behind your name in Odin’s Many Names, or see where your namesakes fit on our Viking Timeline.
Viking Names: Questions and Answers
Not family surnames. Most Vikings were known as their father’s son or daughter, such as Leif Eiriksson (Eirik’s son). Many also earned a nickname, like Harald Fairhair.
Someone, often the father, poured water over the newborn and spoke its name, a custom called ausa vatni. Children were often named after a respected relative who had died.
Names built on the god Thor, such as Thorstein and Thorbjorn, were very popular. So were animal names like Bjorn (bear) and Ulf (wolf). For girls, Astrid, Sigrid, Frida and Thorgerd were common.
Try Asgard Alaska’s free Viking name generator. It builds a name the traditional way, with a real Old Norse first name, a father’s name or nickname, and your name in runes.
Sources
- National Museum of Denmark, Names in the Viking Age
- Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Saga of Harald Fairhair, ch. 40, “Birth of Hakon the Good” (trans. Samuel Laing, 1844), Project Gutenberg
- History on the Net, Viking Names and Naming Conventions
- The Mariners’ Museum, Leif Eriksson
