319 Female Viking Names (With Top Twelve List)

Choosing a name for your child, or someone you love can undoubtedly be a difficult task. If you are looking …

Choosing a name for your child, or someone you love can undoubtedly be a difficult task. If you are looking for female names inspired by goddesses or other strong women from Norse mythology, or just the Viking Age, this list will hopefully help you on your journey.

When working on this list I started with almost fifteen hundred names. Then, through a highly subjective and non-scientific process I weaned out most of them. To not make it all subjective, I finally recruited the help of my daughter Oda (her name is remarkably in the top twelve). Together we have looked at more female Viking Age names than I had ever thought I would. My son Brage and I have made a list of Viking Age names for boys as well.

Our goal has been to create a list with names that we actually liked, while not being too restrictive. We eliminated names that today are more male than female. We also removed some that have taken on some unintended meaning in our time. Finally we cut some (many) that we in good conscience didn’t want to help someone name their daughter.

Many of these are popular female names today across Scandinavia. Based on our own taste we also came up with a list of top twelve female names with strong roots in the Norse myths or Viking Age. As the Norns carve runes into the roots of Yggdrasil, deciding what the future has in hold for your child, a good name will certainly be a great gift.

I have also created a Dictionary of Norse Mythology which is much broader, covering all manner of gods, animals, jötnar, dwarves, places and more.

Top Twelve Female Names from the Viking Age

When choosing the top twelve female names from Norse myths and history, we had a bit of a challenge. We really ended with fifteen or sixteen names, however we finally managed to get it down to twelve. Obviously, choosing a name is highly personal so our top picks aren’t necessarily the same as yours will be.

We hope you find this list helpful and would love to hear from you if you decide to use one of them yourself.

Top Twelve List

Alphabetical list of female Viking Age names

Andora means "Thor's Eagle" - Female version of the male Andor. An- is derived from Old Norse Árn (meaning eagle), -dor is from the Old Norse Þórr for Thor.

Girl names Starting with A

Brynhildr is the name of the famous valkyrie and shield maiden Brynhildr. The name is made up of bryn, meaning chain mail, and hildr, meaning battle.

Girl names Starting with B

Dagny means "New Day"( Could also be understood as New Beginning). Derived from the Old Norse Dágr, the god of the day, and -ny, meaning new.

Girl names Starting with D

The name Eir, or Eira is from the Aesir goddess of healing Eir. As a name it could also be associated with protection or giving help.

Girl names Starting with E

Frøya is the Scandinavian variant of the name of the Vanir goddess of beauty and fertility, Freyja.

Girl names Starting with F

Girl names Starting with G

Girl names Starting with H

Girl names Starting with I

Girl names Starting with J

Girl names Starting with K

Girl names Starting with L

Girl names Starting with M

Girl names Starting with N

The name Oda means "Prosperity" or "Happiness". It is a short form of even older German female names beginning with Od- or Ot-. Derived from Old Norse auðr, meaning prosperity.

Girl names Starting with O

Girl names Starting with R

The name Sol means sun. It is from Old Norse Sól, goddess of the sun. It  means sun, even to this day in all the Scandinavian languages.

Girl names Starting with S

Girl names Starting with T

Girl names Starting with U

Girl names Starting with V

Girl names Starting with Y

Girl names Starting With Ø

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Marius

Norse mythology enthusiast, Norwegian and living in Oslo next to a series of old Viking age burial mounds.I am also able to navigate and understand quite a lot of the old Norse texts and I often lean on original texts when researching an article. Through this blog I hope more people, young and old will get to know Norse mythology and the world of the Vikings a bit better. You can find me here

7 thoughts on “319 Female Viking Names (With Top Twelve List)”

  1. Growing up, according to name books that actually HAD the Norse version of the name (A few in the 80’s and even fewer after Tyra Banks became popular with her being named after her father Tyrone) and my Norwegian family members, everyone’s told me that my name Tyra was a feminine version of týr, the God of War, Courage and Justice who gave his right hand to help chain the wolf Fenrir, and had nothing to do with my dad’s name, Thor. Is “Thor’s warrior” this a regional thing, or is it cultural shift? Two variants of the same name? I see some sites saying its after Týr and others claiming its after Þýri and this is the first place that I’ve seen that actually had the option to ask.

    Reply
  2. Came here to look for a name for my daughter thats gonna be born in january. Just hope i can persuade my wife with one of these names haha. Thanks for the awsome list.

    Reply
    • Hi Benjamin, great to hear you appreciated the list we have created. It’s an ongoing project to update the meaning of many of them still so maybe come back again later. Best of luck convincing the wife 😉

      Marius

      Reply
  3. I have been fascinated with Vikings for many years, and I live the fact that you explain things about them and the names you have on here are amazing, I’ve named family members after Vikings names and the meanings mean alot to me to understand and how to say each one, I make sure it fits the family member.
    I appreciate you very much and my goal in life is to be able to come and visit the land and the one castle that’s still up from my understanding Brunanburh.

    Reply
    • Hey Ann, great to hear from you and that you find the name list helpful. Reminds me to get back to it to add more descriptions and meanings to the list. I’m not sure if maybe the castle you are refering is actually Bamburgh Castle, but either way, if you do want to dig into Viking Age history, you might be better off visiting Norway or Denmark (personally I’m obviously required to say Norway 😉 ) and visit some sites here. I believe there is a “live” Viking Age village in Denmark you can visit as well. Visiting Norway would allow for maybe exploring some of the countryside where many of the Viking Age clans lived, giving more of a feel for the land than visiting a museum can ever do. Pwrsonally, we have a small forest behind our house here in Oslo with a long row of Viking Age burial mounds, just sitting down there and let it sink in feels to me like another great experience besides visiting museums. Hope for you that you get to go sometime!

      Reply
  4. My husband and I are both practicing Norse Pagans. Something I really like about this vlog, is that you’re delivering straight information, to the best of your knowledge and understanding. A great many posts are quick to condemn us for our faith. Keep seeking the truth, my friend. Knowledge is power. Skọl

    Reply
    • Hello Shellie, really appreciate your feedback! Exploring Norse history and mythology is an ongoing journey, and kind encouragements like yours is great to have along the way. Being open minded, curious and caring goes a long way, rather than close minded, set in your ways in convinced of ones own beliefes.

      Reply

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