hermeline's Personal Name List

Faroese form of Þróndr.

Faroese form of Trausti.

From the Old Norse name Þórgeirr, which meant "Thor's spear" from the name of the Norse god Þórr (see Thor) combined with geirr "spear".

German male name representing the Germanic god Thor.

Used by JRR Tolkien as the name of a dwarf, Thorin Oakensheild, who is the main dwarf in 'The Hobbit'. Tolkien took the name from the Dvergatal "Catalogue of Dwarves" in the Völuspá, a part of the Poetic Edda.

Meaning unknown, perhaps related to Old Norse stilling "calm", or perhaps of German origin.

Directly taken from Faroese smæra "clover".

Norwegian variant of Sigmund, Sæmund and Simon 1 as well as a Judeo-Anglo-Norman adoption of this name.

Finnish variant of Simon 1.

From the Old Norse name Sigurðr, which was derived from the elements sigr "victory" and vǫrðr "guard, guardian". Sigurd was the hero of the Norse epic the Völsungasaga, which tells how his foster father Regin sent him to recover a hoard of gold guarded by the dragon Fafnir. After slaying the dragon Sigurd tasted some of its blood, enabling him to understand the language of birds, who told him that Regin was planning to betray him. In a later adventure, Sigurd disguised himself as Gunnar (his wife Gudrun's brother) and rescued the maiden Brynhildr from a ring of fire, with the result that Gunnar and Brynhildr were married. When the truth eventually came out, Brynhildr took revenge upon Sigurd. The stories of the German hero Siegfried were in part based on him.

From the Old Norse name Sigríðr, which was derived from the elements sigr "victory" and fríðr "beautiful, beloved".

Variant of Ottilie.

Used by Sir Walter Scott for a character in his novel 'The Pirate' (1821). Apparently he based it on Old Norse norn, the name for one of the fate goddesses of Norse mythology, which is related to the Swedish dialect verb norna "to warn, to communicate secretly" (and may ultimately be echoic in origin, i.e., imitative of low murmuring). Swedish botanist Göran Wahlenberg gave the name to a type of orchid in 1826. Its earliest documented usage in Sweden is 1863.

Contracted form of Melinda as well as a truncated form of both Aminda and Eminda.

Faroese variant of Marius.

Feminine form of Magnús. It may also be used as an Icelandic feminine form of Magni.

Means "snow" in Finnish.

Danish and Norwegian form of Laurentius (see Laurence 1).

Norwegian adoption of an originally German short form of Old High German names containing the element isarn meaning "iron" (e.g., Isengard, Iselinde, Isburg), as well as an adoption of an obsolete German diminutive of Isa 2 and a Norwegian adoption and adaption of the Irish name Aisling (compare Isleen).

Younger form of Hildirun.

Meaning unknown. This is the name of a warrior-queen in Norse mythology.

Finnish feminine form of Heinrich (see Henry).

Derived from Old Norse heiðr meaning "bright, clear" and rún meaning "secret lore, rune". In Norse mythology this was the name of a goat that would eat the leaves from the tree of life and produce mead in her udder.

Finnish diminutive of Johanna or Hannah.

From Gyða, an Old Norse diminutive of Guðríðr. It was borne by a Danish noblewoman who married the English lord Godwin of Wessex in the 11th century. The name was used in England for a short time after that, and was revived in the 19th century.

From Old Norse gymir meaning 'sea'. Gymir is a Jǫtunn in the Northern mythology.

Variant of Götilda.

Feminine form of Ghislain.

Meaning unknown, possibly related to the Basque word hartz meaning "bear". This was the name of several medieval kings of Navarre and Leon.

Possibly an Anglicized form of Fríða. It was used by Rosemary Sutcliff for a character in her children's historical novel The Shield Ring (1956).

Norwegian form of Freya.

Variant of Freyr.

Means "land, earth" in Old Norse, derived from Proto-Germanic *fergunją "mountain". In Norse mythology, Fjǫrgyn was the goddess of the earth and the mother of Thor. She was also known by the names Jǫrð and Hlóðyn.

Variant of Fiënne.

Short form of the Old Norse Fenrisúlfr (literally "Fenrir-wolf"). The form Fenris Ulf was used for a talking wolf (originally named Maugrim) in the now defunct American edition of C. S. Lewis' 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'.

Feminine form of Fen 2.

Danish and Faroese short form of Eufemia.

Old Danish and Anglo-Scandinavian form of Ásbjǫrn. This name was born by chieftain, royal chancellor and crusader Esbern Snare (1127-1204), also known as Esbern the Resolute, who is the subject of a Danish legend which tells the story of how he built Kalundborg Church.

Variant of Asbjørn.

Variant of Edias.

From the Old Norse name Dagrún, which was derived from the Old Norse elements dagr "day" and rún "secret lore, rune".

Obsolete variant of Brynhild.

Derived from the Old Norse elements brynja "armour" and dís "goddess".

The name of an alleged Lithuanian goddess of the evening.

The form Bezlea was first recorded by Polish historian and theologian Jan Łasicki in his treatise on idolatry De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum et falsorum Christianorum, written ca. 1582 and published in 1615, while Polish historian Theodor Narbutt referred to her as Bezelea in his work Dzieje starożytne narodu litewskiego, written between 1835 and 1841.
Both forms are Latinizations; the original form, if there ever was one, is lost, however a Lithuanian form has since been reconstructed: Bežlėja.
It has been suggested that Bežlėja might be derived from Lithuanian blista "to darken; to get dark".

Since neither Łasicki nor Narbutt were intimately familiar with Lithuanian culture or language, the academic opinion on the value of their documents ranges from a valuable resource to a practical joke.

From the reconstructed Proto-Norse name *Baunila, possibly meaning "little bean" or "little swelling". In Norse mythology, Beyla is a servant of the god Freyr with her husband Bryggvir.

Variant of Berit.

Variant of Bernhard.

Norwegian form of Auðrún.

Either a Scandinavian form of Arwin (see Erwin) or a combination of the Old Norse name elements ari "eagle" and vinr "friend".

Variant of Angela.

Scandinavian form of Andreas (see Andrew). A famous bearer was the Swedish physicist Anders Jonas Ångström (1814-1874).

Means "sea, ocean" in Old Norse. According to Norse mythology Ægir was a god or giant (jǫtunn) who lived under the ocean. His wife was Rán.

Alternate form of Ægir, and one of Saturn’s moons.