Viking Girl Names and Their Meanings
The best viking girl names aren’t decoration — they’re compact stories. Old Norse parents built daughters’ names from goddess names, battle words, and virtues like wisdom and protection, and you can still read those meanings today if you know where to look. Below are 30 names drawn straight from the Eddas, the sagas, and real Viking Age runic inscriptions, grouped by where they come from.
Viking girl names at a glance
- Many names carry a battle element — hildr (battle) and gunnr (war) show up constantly, even in names for women.
- Goddess names (Freya, Sif, Idun, Saga) were used sparingly as given names but heavily as compound elements.
- Freya currently ranks in the UK’s top 20 girls’ names — proof these names never really went out of style.
- Daughters took a patronymic too: -dóttir, as in Auð the Deep-Minded, dóttir of Ketill Flatnose.
Goddess-Derived Names
The most direct route to a mythological name is borrowing from a goddess outright.
- Freya (Freyja) — means “lady” or “mistress,” the name of the goddess of love, fertility, war and gold; possibly the root behind the later name Frida in some Scandinavian traditions, though Frida also has separate Germanic roots meaning “peace.”
- Sif — Thor’s wife, goddess associated with grain and her famous golden hair; the name likely relates to an old word for kinship or affinity.
- Idun (Iðunn) — keeper of the apples of youth; meaning debated, possibly “the rejuvenating one” or tied to a root meaning “again/back.”
- Saga — a lesser-known goddess associated with wisdom and storytelling (some sources link her to Frigg); also simply the Old Norse word for a prose narrative.
- Nanna — wife of Balder in the Prose Edda; meaning uncertain, possibly related to a root for “mother” or nurturing.
Valkyrie Names: Battle and Protection
Valkyries — the choosers of the slain — carry some of the most literal battle-compounds in the entire Norse naming system.
- Hilda / Hildr — simply “battle.” One of the most productive name-elements in the entire language, appearing in dozens of compounds.
- Sigrid (Sigríðr) — sigr (“victory”) + fríðr (“beautiful” or “fair”), “beautiful victory.”
- Gunnhild (Gunnhildr) — gunnr + hildr, two separate words for “battle” stacked into one name — about as fierce as Old Norse gets.
- Brynhild (Brynhildr) — brynja (“mail-coat, armor”) + hildr (“battle”), “armored battle-maiden,” the valkyrie and tragic heroine of the Völsunga saga.
- Svanhild (Svanhildr) — svanr (“swan”) + hildr (“battle”), daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun in the same saga cycle.
For the real military history behind these battle-names, our piece on shieldmaidens and the real history of Viking women warriors separates the legend from the archaeology.
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Saga Women Worth Naming a Daughter After
Some of the strongest names come attached to real saga women rather than goddesses or valkyries.
- Gudrun (Guðrún) — guð (“god”) + rún (“secret lore, rune”), “god’s secret/rune”; the central figure of the Völsunga saga who survives both Sigurd and her brothers.
- Aud / Unn the Deep-Minded (Auðr) — one of the great overlooked figures of the settlement era: a widowed matriarch who led her own ship and household from Scotland to Iceland and divided land among her followers as a chieftain in her own right. The name itself likely means “wealth” or “riches.”
- Thyra (&Thorn;yra) — possibly a feminine form built on the god-name &Thorn;órr (Thor); borne by Queen Thyra of the Jelling dynasty in Denmark.
- Astrid (Ástríðr) — áss (“god”) + fríðr (“beautiful, beloved”), “beloved of the gods.”
- Ingrid (Ingríðr) — built on Ing, an old fertility-god name also connected to Frey, + fríðr, “beautiful.”
- Helga — the feminine form of Helgi, meaning “holy” or “blessed.”
- Ragnhild (Ragnhildr) — regin (“the ruling powers”) + hildr (“battle”), the female counterpart to Ragnar’s compound.
- Solveig — a caveat name: this one is a later Norwegian medieval formation (sól, “sun,” + veig, roughly “strength” or “drink”) rather than a securely attested Viking Age name, though it reads as classic Old Norse.
- Liv — “life” or “protection,” a short, simple name still common in Norway today.
- Embla — the first woman in Norse creation myth, shaped from a tree by Odin and his brothers; meaning likely tied to “elm.”
- Runa — built directly on rún, “rune, secret.”
- Tove (Tófa) — a diminutive tied to &Thorn;órr (Thor) through a shortened compound form.
- Yrsa — meaning debated; appears in legendary sagas as the mother of Hrolf Kraki, possibly linked to a word for a female bear cub.
Strength in a Single Syllable
Not every strong Norse name is a long compound. Sif, Liv, Tove, Runa and Saga all pack meaning into one or two syllables, which is part of why they travel so well into modern naming — they don’t read as costume names, they read as names. That’s a useful distinction when you’re choosing between something like Gunnhild, which announces itself immediately as an Old Norse battle-name, and something like Liv, which reads as contemporary Scandinavian first and historical second. Neither approach is wrong; they just serve different goals. A one-syllable name is easier to pair with an English or American surname without the whole thing sounding like a costume choice, while a full compound like Ragnhild or Brynhild makes a much bolder, more deliberate statement.
Pronunciation Notes
A handful of these look trickier than they sound. Hildr is roughly HILL-der in an anglicized reading. Guðrún (Gudrun) softens its eth (ð) into a plain “d” sound in most modern usage, giving GOOD-run. Auðr is usually rendered as either “Aud” or “Audr” in English text, both pronounced close to “owed.” Sigríðr, the full Old Norse form behind Sigrid, is rarely used outside academic contexts today — the shortened Sigrid is both easier to say and the form you’ll actually encounter in Scandinavia.
Modern Popularity: These Names Never Left
Freya is the clearest proof these names are alive, not archived — it currently sits inside the UK’s top 20 girls’ names, right alongside modern favorites. Astrid, Ingrid, Freya and Liv all read as normal, wearable names across the US and Northern Europe today. If you like the idea of dressing the part alongside the name, our guide to building a shieldmaiden-inspired wardrobe is a natural next stop, and our Viking gifts for her roundup covers ways to carry the theme past the nursery.
Quick Answers
What is a real Viking name for a girl? Names like Astrid, Ingrid, Sigrid, Helga and Freya are all directly attested Old Norse names with clear meanings, not modern inventions.
What does the name Brynhild mean? Brynhild (Brynhildr) combines brynja, “mail-coat,” with hildr, “battle” — roughly “armored battle-maiden,” and belongs to a tragic valkyrie heroine in the Völsunga saga.
Is Freya a popular name today? Yes — Freya currently ranks in the UK’s top 20 girls’ names and remains common across Scandinavia.
Did Viking women have their own version of a surname? Yes. Daughters used a patronymic ending in -dóttir, as in Auðr the Deep-Minded’s own household records, the same system Iceland still uses today.