Norse & Viking Names
Norse names arrived in America twice: once with Scandinavian immigrants a century ago, and again lately by way of the sagas, the Marvel screen, and a taste for names with edges. This list mixes the gods of the myths with Old Norse names real Vikings carried.
| Save name | Name & connection | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The 'eternal ruler'; Erik the Red carried it to Greenland. | 549#546 | Down 124 rank positions in five years | 1980 | ||
'Battle' — the core of Brunhilda and her sisters. | 55#3,007 | Up 413 rank positions in five years | 1921 | ||
Scandinavian form of Absalom — 'father of peace'. | 4,140#79 | Down 7 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
'Beautiful', crowned with the old god Ing. | 209#1,121 | Down 113 rank positions in five years | 1967 | ||
Goddess of love and beauty, whose chariot was drawn by cats. | 1,746#176 | Up 2 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Saga hero's name — 'bold in battle'. | 462#612 | Down 85 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
Old Norse 'divinely beautiful'; a Scandinavian royal staple. | 818#376 | Up 73 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
The All-Father: god of wisdom, war, and poetry. | 604#502 | Down 171 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
The Danish classic Kierkegaard answered to. | 665#464 | Up 45 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
'Heir' — Leif Erikson reached North America around the year 1000. | 257#917 | Down 3 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Old Norse for 'bear'. | 298#829 | Down 52 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
God of thunder, wielder of the hammer Mjölnir. | 44#2,874 | Down 1,098 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
'Victory' joined to 'beautiful'. | 32#4,444 | Down 453 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Old Norse 'new victory'. | 8#11,785 | Down 5,187 rank positions in five years | 1915 | ||
Old Norse 'young warrior'. | 31#3,644 | Down 1,183 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
Thor's name, given to daughters. | 20#6,092 | Down 2,698 rank positions in five years | 1916 | ||
Old Norse 'holy, blessed'. | —Unranked | — | 1961 | ||
The shape-shifting trickster of Norse myth. | 85#1,858 | Down 527 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Old Norse 'new day'. | 24#5,278 | Down 1,426 rank positions in five years | 2013 | ||
'Lone warrior' — a name for the battlefield. | 47#2,724 | Up 2,179 rank positions in five years | 1915 | ||
A bow-warrior's name borne by Viking kings. | 133#1,384 | Up 497 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
'Strength of the sun'; the heroine of Peer Gynt. | 17#6,790 | Down 966 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
From Old Norse vig — 'war'. | 97#1,697 | Up 1,221 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The legendary Viking Ragnar Lothbrok. | 52#2,561 | Down 518 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Norse goddess of storytelling — and the stories themselves. | 17#6,783 | Up 1,545 rank positions in five years | 2024 |
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Sources & methodology
Meaning summaries use Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and referenced name histories. Each name’s detail page includes its sources.
Membership on this list is editorial — we chose names that genuinely fit the theme. Every number is from official birth data: "—" means the name had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, which makes it a genuinely rare pick today, not an invalid one. The dot marks whether the stats shown are for the girls' or boys' use of the name.