[name]Hi[/name] All,
Recently there has been some discussion in a few of the other threads about Scandinavian names, especially those from family trees and personal heritage. I think that some of the names have been wonderful and I am intrigued. I would like to know more so I thought it might be nice to have a thread just for listing some of our favorites.
If you know the scandinavian country of origin or the original meaning of the name, please add that as well. (To make things easy, just put a letter to indicate the names origin - such as [S]wedish, [N]orwegian, [D]anish, [F]innish, or [O]ld Norse beside the name.)
Thanks!
[name]Astrid[/name] is my favorite Scandinavian girls name.
I like [name]Elin[/name] or [name]Kirsten[/name], but [name]Annika[/name] is my all-time favorite.
Where is Dearest ^^ when we need her? I am hooked on Scandinavian crime writers, and am always intrigued by the names. They have a very strong feel to them. I love [name]Astrid[/name] and [name]Ingrid[/name] (I think these would be great names for twins being different enough but also similar) in particular, but there are lots and I think Dearest ^^ should tell us more now.
[name]Ailsa[/name]
xxx
My favorite Scandinavian name for a girl is [name]Annika[/name]. But when I looked it up on Nameberry, I read that it is a Russian name. Then why is it in “[name]Pippi[/name] Longstocking”? [name]Tommy[/name] and [name]Annika[/name], the neighbor children in “[name]Pippi[/name] Longstocking” have a grandma named [name]Laura[/name]. Perhaps [name]Laura[/name] has a Swedish variant. [name]Don[/name]'t know what it is.
[name]Sven[/name] is my favorite Scandinavian boy’s name. It is Norse. I love to call my husband [name]Sven[/name] sometimes just for fun.
I’d love to hear all the Scandinavian versions of [name]Thomas[/name] and [name]Peter[/name]. I bet I would love them.
I’m here ^^
The names mentioned so far, [name]Elin[/name], [name]Kirsten[/name], [name]Annika[/name], [name]Ingrid[/name] and [name]Astrid[/name] are all well used in Norway at least. [name]Elin[/name] is a Norwegian form of [name]Helen[/name], [name]Kirsten[/name] is originally a Danish form of [name]Christian[/name] (or [name]Kristian[/name] which is the most common Scandinavian form) and [name]Ingrid[/name] and [name]Astrid[/name] are both Norse… A lot of names end in -rid actually, so you actually have infinite possibilities in naming multiples although I would advise against it! The -rid ending comes from [name]Frida[/name]/Frid which means ‘beautiful’ or sometimes ‘peace’. '[name]Fred[/name] is actually the Norwegian word for ‘peace’ so you can see the connection!
[name]Annika[/name] is listed everywhere I trust (except Nameberry) as a Swedish form of [name]Anna[/name]. It sounds a bit Russian though 
[name]Sven[/name] is the epitome of Scandinavian names to all English speakers! It’s Danish, and it’s Norwegian equivalent is [name]Svein[/name] which is the most popular form in Norway, even though both are quite common It’s an old word name which means ‘young boy’… It’s very seldom used as a word any more though, only by really old people, so most people just see it as a name and nothing else!
As for [name]Laura[/name], [name]Thomas[/name] and [name]Peter[/name] they don’t have the most interesting Scandinavian forms, [name]Laura[/name] is just [name]Laura[/name], [name]Thomas[/name] is mostly [name]Thomas[/name] and almost as often [name]Tomas[/name], [name]Peter[/name] is usually [name]Per[/name], but no one thinks about [name]Per[/name] as a form of [name]Peter[/name], and [name]Per[/name] is usually the first half of a double firstname! There’s also [name]Peder[/name] which is a typical grandpa name that may become popular again in the next 10 years in Norway, Peik which is considered a pet form, [name]Pelle[/name] which is also a pet form and [name]Petter[/name] which I hope none of you will ever use! XD
Also, I just signed up for a site called forvo.com which is a place where people can upload sound files of words pronounced in their native language. This means I can upload pronunciations of requested names and post links to them so you can listen to how they sound said by a native Norwegian speaker! I can’t promise to do a lot of these, but as long as I think it’s fun I’ll probably keep doing it ^^
Edited to add:
For [name]Susan[/name], here’s me pronouncing Ravn: Ravn pronunciation: How to pronounce Ravn in Norwegian, Danish
dearest -
I love how Ravn sounds! Almost a rah-vn, rather than a ray-vn - it reminds me of how the name “[name]Robin[/name]” sounds, except with one syllable.
My husband is of swedish origins (hence the interest in scandinavian names) and is named “[name]Roy[/name]” after his swedish grandfather “[name]Roy[/name] [name]Adolf[/name]”. The family story goes that every generation had a “[name]Roy[/name] [name]Adolf[/name]” in the family. (My m-i-l changed the mn “[name]Adolph[/name]” tradition when she named my dh.) [name]Every[/name] name source I have says the name “[name]Roy[/name]” is french meaning “red”, while he has always believed that it was swedish for “king”. Maybe you can give me some insight into the scandinavian origins of the name or possibly an alternate (more swedish) spelling of “[name]Roy[/name]”? (I realize you aren’t swedish, that you’re norwegian, but you are a lot closer to [name]Sweden[/name] than I am. 
I am curious to know.
Thank you so much!
Girls:
[name]Annalie[/name]
[name]Elin[/name]
[name]Malin[/name]
[name]Malena[/name]
[name]Tove[/name]
[name]Gerda[/name]
Inari
[name]Ilsa[/name]
[name]Liv[/name]
[name]Siri[/name]
[name]Astrid[/name]
[name]Kerstin[/name]
[name]Linnea[/name]
[name]Aili[/name]
[name]Lena[/name]
[name]Annika[/name]
Aila
[name]Ailsa[/name]
Svea
Boys:
[name]Stellan[/name]
[name]Soren[/name]
[name]Thorsten[/name]
[name]Leif[/name]
[name]Boden[/name]
[name]Haakon[/name]
[name]Ivor[/name]
Marten
[name]Axel[/name]
[name]Larson[/name]
[name]Cai[/name]
[name]Einar[/name]
Halen
[name]Nansen[/name]
My favourite name is [name]Freya[/name] think its norse and it means noble 
A couple of my favorites (so far):
[name]Eira[/name] - (a form of “[name]Eir[/name]”, the name of a goddess in nordic mythology, means “mercy”)
[name]Linnea[/name] - (technically means “lime tree”, but is also the name for the “twinflower” in [name]Sweden[/name], named by the Swedish botanist [name]Carolus[/name] Linnaeus)
I checked out the [name]Roy[/name] question for you rbyndlrsn, and it seems it means both [name]King[/name] in French and [name]Red[/name] in Gaelic. Not Swedish I’m afraid, at least not in a way I can find in my resources!
And [name]Eira[/name] is one of my favourite Norse names as well! [name]Linnea[/name] has become so overused in Norway that most namenerds consider her too sugar sweet to even consider! She’s part of a trend of only using soft names with loads of vowels and n/m/l/d/t/h in there somewhere, [name]Leander[/name] and [name]Linnea[/name] are kind of the epitome of that
For BB:
A lovely collection of names, but I’m sad to disappoint you that a few of them aren’t Scandinavian!
[name]Annalie[/name] - We use [name]Anneli[/name] in Norway at least
Inari - I’ve never heard of, the simple [name]Ina[/name] is well used, but is a pet form of all names ending in -ina…
[name]Aili[/name] - is Irish, form of [name]Aileen[/name]
[name]Ailsa[/name] - is Scottish and sounds less than melodious said in Norwegian, which really saddens me!
[name]Boden[/name] - Never heard of! The closest I can find is the Russian [name]Bogdan[/name]. The closest Norse name I can find is Bodvar
[name]Ivor[/name] - Is the Scottish form, [name]Ivar[/name] or [name]Iver[/name] is properly Norse ^^
Marten - Is a Dutch form of [name]Martin[/name], [name]Morten[/name] is a Danish one that’s quite popular in Norway
[name]Cai[/name] - is most likely from the Latin [name]Caius[/name] or a short form of [name]Karl[/name] which is [name]German[/name] and possibly Scandinavian since the languages have the same root, but it’s technically [name]German[/name]
Halen - means ‘the tail’ in Norwegian so it’s not from here…
Also, [name]Larsen[/name] and [name]Nansen[/name] are surnames in Norway, and only surnames! It’s very very rare that surnames are used as first names in Norway!! Very rare! ^^
Aklein, [name]Freya[/name] is very Norse, means ‘Lady’ or ‘[name]Queen[/name]’ and was the goddess of fertility and love in Norse mythology. She also rode a chariot dragged by cats… Alternate spelling [name]Freia[/name] is the top chocolate brand in Norway, and no matter what you’ve heard about Belgian and Swiss chocolate, [name]Freia[/name]'s milk chocolate is the best in the world!!! It’s silky smooth and feels like heaven in you mouth!! You have to taste it if you get a hold of it, it has easily recognisable yellow packaging like this (slogan is ‘a small piece of Norway’):
Too bad [name]Freia[/name] is my favourite spelling since I could never use it in Norway and get away with it… Everyone would instantly link it to the chocolate… 
Haha thank you I like the [name]Freia[/name] spelling too, and wow now i really want some chocolate now looks yummy
Thanks, Dearest, for checking into the origin of “[name]Roy[/name]” for me. I kind of thought that may be the case, but I was curious just because of the family story that I had been told. Honestly, I don’t have access to any documentation confirming the story. My husband’s grandfather was named that and he (apparently) was born soon after his parents immigrated from [name]Sweden[/name], so we are a few generations removed. We don’t live in a Scandinavian area by any means and no cultural heritage was really passed down in the family. That being said, “[name]Linnea[/name]” would be considered very un-common here. The funny thing about “[name]Eira[/name]”, my husband and I both fell in love with it when I was pregnant with our youngest and were seriously considering using it until my f-i-l said that it sounded like the masculine “[name]Ira[/name]” and that people would have that association with it. That’s not to say that we wouldn’t consider a variant of it in the future (such as “Eirwen”,“Eirunn”, or even “[name]Eirian[/name]”). I could also see using “Brynolf” instead of “[name]Adolf[/name]” if we chose to continue the family “tradition”.
Thanks Again!
For a girl: Synneva [name]Astrid[/name]
For a boy: Amund [name]Kristofer[/name]
[name]Tomas[/name] and [name]Per[/name]
I really like [name]Signy[/name]…
I live in Northern Germany, so we have lots of lovely sounding Scandinavian names here, not to mention my husband, whose name is [name]Ingo[/name].
Others that I hear:
Girls:
Finja/Fenja
Svenja
[name]Maja[/name]
[name]Greta[/name]
Henrike
[name]Lovisa[/name]
J”rdis
Freyja
[name]Anneke[/name]
Boys:
[name]Leif[/name]
[name]Lasse[/name]
[name]Finn[/name]
[name]Lars[/name]
Kjell
[name]Nils[/name]
Bj”rn
DEAREST^^
I was just about to get all excited then, about [name]AILSA[/name] being Scandinavian, then you said it was just Scottish, which I suppose I knew all along. [name]How[/name] would you say it in Norwegian, then?
[name]Ailsa[/name]
x
^^
It sounds basically the same, but the problem is that the LS is a lot more audible said in Norway, and it just makes it sound very foreign to us, and not very appealing…
I’m not quite sure though, all I can say is that I think there are extremely few Norwegians who’d consider it!
I added it to Forvo.com so you can hear for yourself:
http://www.forvo.com/word/ailsa/
[name]Hi[/name] there - just came across this post and was wondering if anyone could tell me if [name]Laila[/name] is a common girls’ name in Norway, and if so, how it would be pronounced? I love the name and would pronouce it “LIE-la” but here in the US it is typically “[name]LAY[/name]-la”. My husband is Norwegian and it would be nice to choose a cultural name as well as one that I love! Thanks