Gunhild

Girls' name

War, Gunnr + battle, Hildr, through Gunnhildr

Gunhild has been given to 169 babies in the U.S. since 1890. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1916, with 18 recorded.

Babies named Gunhild, 1926

1 in 459,000

Gunhild over time, 1880–2025

Girls

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gunhild: meaning, origin, and history

War, Gunnr + battle, Hildr, through Gunnhildr

Old Norse

What Gunhild means

Gunhild belongs to the name family reached through Gunhild → Gunnhildr. Its meaning is “war, Gunnr + battle, Hildr”.

Origin, language, and formation

Gunhild is used in Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish. Its origins include Old Norse.

Gunhild comes through Old Norse Gunnhildr.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gunnhild and Gunnhildr.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 169 girls were recorded with the name Gunhild between 1890 and 1926. Its highest annual count was 18 in 1916; its best national rank was #1,347 in 1892.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Gunhild?

Gunhild had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1926, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1926: 1 in 459,000; 5 of 2,295,839 births
Among girls only: 1 in 237,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1926: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 318,272 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Gunhild sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1926 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 318,272 children born in 1926 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gunhild. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gunhilds were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gunhild was born before 1916 — so the typical Gunhild is around 109 today.

Median birth year: 1916; About 109 years old
Biggest decade: 1910s; 59.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 93.5%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1910s — 59.2% of all recorded uses (100).

Is Gunhild rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1916 (18)
Years since peak: 109; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 26.3% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,347; 1892

Where Gunhild is used

Across 1910–2025, Gunhild was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 909,309 across all states with data. It was least common in Minnesota (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Illinois1 in —
2Minnesota1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Gunhild has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gunhild around the world

Where Gunhild ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

Norway
1880–2023
#489
in 2023

Popularity data from Statistics Norway. SSB data under CC BY 4.0.

Gunhild by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,347; 1892
Peak year: 1916; 18 that year
First recorded: 1890
Last recorded: 1926
All-time count: 169
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Gunhild

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Guneet Gunda Alfhild Borghild Gunnar Gunner Ragnhild Alphild Gunvor Wild

Sibling names for Gunhild

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Era Leatha Leone Artie Alpha Hettie Cecil Ona

For a brother

Winfield Dorsey Isadore Aloysius Hyman Regis Sydney Meyer

Explore around Gunhild

Top names of 1916, Gunhild's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1892 Girls' names starting with G Norwegian Girl Names Viking Girl Names