Scandinavian names that work in English

What ideas do you have for girls names that work well in both Swedish/Danish/Finnish and English?

I’m currently massively in love with the idea of Laerke (Danish word for “lark”, I believe), said LAIR-keh, kind of. It’s quite unusual, but still looks similar enough to the English word that I think it’d work. I’ve been going on an international name hunt over the past week or two, and I also really like [name_f]Kaia[/name_f]/[name_f]Kaja[/name_f], [name_u]Dagny[/name_u], and [name_f]Elisabet[/name_f] (eh-[name_u]LEE[/name_u]-sah-bet/eh-[name_u]LEE[/name_u]-zah-bet). I’m clearly not a Scandinavian expert, though–I found very few that seemed to have that balance of unusual quirkiness but still usability in the United States. I do really love those four, though, and would be delighted to meet a little girl with any of those names!

Here are some thoughts!

[name_f]Alida[/name_f]
[name_u]Dagny[/name_u]
[name_f]Anneliese[/name_f]
[name_f]Rona[/name_f] / [name_m]Rune[/name_m]
[name_f]Ebba[/name_f]
[name_f]Elsa[/name_f]
[name_f]Vita[/name_f]
[name_u]Vega[/name_u]
[name_f]Oda[/name_f]
[name_f]Freja[/name_f]/[name_f]Freya[/name_f]
[name_f]Rebekka[/name_f]
[name_f]Margareta[/name_f]
[name_f]Sanna[/name_f]
[name_f]Anette[/name_f]
[name_f]Eva[/name_f]
[name_f]Beatrix[/name_f]
[name_f]Sonja[/name_f]
[name_f]Tova[/name_f]
[name_f]Dorothea[/name_f]
[name_f]Sunniva[/name_f]
[name_f]Ulla[/name_f]
Synove
[name_f]Hanna[/name_f]
[name_f]Irena[/name_f]
[name_f]Amalia[/name_f]
[name_f]Gaia[/name_f]
[name_f]Gisela[/name_f]
[name_f]Lena[/name_f]
[name_f]Linnea[/name_f]
[name_f]Greta[/name_f]
[name_f]Asta[/name_f]
[name_f]Ingrid[/name_f]
[name_f]Lovisa[/name_f]
[name_f]Lisbet[/name_f]
[name_f]Josefa[/name_f]
[name_f]Liv[/name_f]
[name_f]Karoline[/name_f]
[name_f]Marta[/name_f]
[name_f]Brigitte[/name_f]

[name_f]My[/name_f] favourites are: [name_f]Katja[/name_f]/[name_f]Katia[/name_f], [name_f]Astrid[/name_f], [name_f]Ingrid[/name_f], [name_f]Beatrix[/name_f], and [name_f]Viveka[/name_f].

There are the more common Scandinavian names (some made famous by famous Scandinavians) like:
[name_f]Annika[/name_f]
[name_f]Astrid[/name_f]
[name_f]Ingrid[/name_f]
[name_f]Greta[/name_f]
[name_f]Liv[/name_f]
[name_f]Lykke[/name_f]
[name_f]Maja[/name_f]
[name_f]Maren[/name_f]

Then there are the Scandinavian variations of already known names like:
[name_f]Cathrine[/name_f]/[name_f]Katrine[/name_f]/[name_f]Kathrine[/name_f] ([name_f]Catherine[/name_f]/[name_f]Katherine[/name_f])
[name_f]Filippa[/name_f] ([name_f]Philippa[/name_f])
[name_f]Josefina[/name_f]/[name_f]Josefine[/name_f] ([name_f]Josephine[/name_f])
[name_f]Karolina[/name_f] ([name_f]Caroline[/name_f])
[name_f]Lovisa[/name_f] ([name_f]Louisa[/name_f])
[name_f]Margareta[/name_f]/[name_f]Margrete[/name_f]/Margrethe ([name_f]Margaret[/name_f])

Lastly there are the somewhat-uncommon-but-still-doable ones like:
[name_f]Alma[/name_f]
[name_u]Alva[/name_u]
Alvilda
[name_f]Asta[/name_f]
[name_f]Frida[/name_f]
[name_f]Ida[/name_f]
[name_f]Kaja[/name_f]
[name_f]Kajsa[/name_f]
[name_f]Katinka[/name_f]
Laerke/Lerke
[name_f]Lilja[/name_f]
[name_f]Linnea[/name_f]
[name_u]Malin[/name_u]
[name_f]Margit[/name_f]
[name_f]Ronja[/name_f]
[name_f]Saga[/name_f]
[name_f]Silja[/name_f]
[name_f]Sunniva[/name_f]
[name_f]Tuva[/name_f]
Vilja

I would be immensely surprised to see [name_m]Rune[/name_m] on a girl in Scandinavia as it’s predominantly a boys name :slight_smile:

I love [name_f]Solveig[/name_f] (pronounced SOULvay)! I live in MN and have met a couple of women named [name_f]Solveig[/name_f], I imagine it would be hard to use outside of the upper-Midwest though.

I love [name_f]Viveka[/name_f]/[name_f]Viveca[/name_f], [name_f]Kaia[/name_f], [name_f]Lisbet[/name_f], [name_f]Lena[/name_f], [name_f]Ulla[/name_f], and [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_f]Linnea[/name_f]. [name_m]How[/name_m] well do you think those names will work? Is [name_f]Ulla[/name_f] usable in the U.S.? [name_m]How[/name_m] do you think [name_f]Viveca[/name_f] would be pronounced?

Probably either vih-vih-ka (Like [name_f]Vivica[/name_f] [name_m]Fox[/name_m]) or vih-vee-ka. It’s not so different from [name_u]Vivian[/name_u] that I see people absolutely melting down about it.

[name_u]Haven[/name_u]'t ever heard of it here in Denmark, but I would say that it’s pronounced VIH-veh-ka - somewhat like [name_f]Vibeke[/name_f].

The main thing that confuses English speakers about Scandinavian names is how to pronounce the traditional spelling. So a name like [name_f]Signe[/name_f] looks confusing but its just [name_f]Sina[/name_f]. So maybe just change the spelling to be phonetic.
Eg.
[name_f]Signe[/name_f]/ [name_f]Sina[/name_f]
[name_f]Matilde[/name_f]/ [name_f]Matilda[/name_f]
[name_f]Silje[/name_f]/ [name_f]Celia[/name_f]
[name_f]Sonja[/name_f]/ [name_f]Sonya[/name_f]
[name_f]Kathrine[/name_f]/ [name_f]Katrina[/name_f]
[name_f]Nadja[/name_f]/[name_f]Nadia[/name_f]

Other names…
[name_f]Astrid[/name_f] (ah-streed)
[name_f]Marit[/name_f]
[name_f]Lotte[/name_f]
[name_f]Heidi[/name_f]
Helle
[name_f]Ida[/name_f] (eeda)
[name_f]Cecilie[/name_f]
Vibike (vee-bih-kah)

[name_f]My[/name_f] favorite are
[name_f]Liv[/name_f]
[name_u]Malin[/name_u]
[name_f]Elisabet[/name_f]
[name_f]Thora[/name_f]
[name_f]Ulla[/name_f]

Not to be a total smartass, but Finland isn’t Scandinavian. The Scandinavian countries are Denmark, [name_u]Sweden[/name_u] and NORWAY. As a Norwegian, I had to make that clear. Finland isn’t Scandinavian, because the language is… well, the language is too different from Norwegian, Danish and Swedish whom all understand each other.

Anyway, names I absolutely love:
Gurå
[name_f]Iselin[/name_f]
[name_u]Tora[/name_u]
[name_f]Mette[/name_f]
[name_f]Jakobine[/name_f]
[name_u]Kari[/name_u] ([name_f]Nana[/name_f]'s name)

I noticed that. It’s fascinating how different the Finnish language is from Norway, Denmark and [name_u]Sweden[/name_u].

I’d love to see this as a blog post by one of you Scandinavian berries, along with a pronunciation guide. I didn’t know [name_f]Signe[/name_f] and [name_f]Silje[/name_f] were pronounced [name_f]Sina[/name_f] and [name_f]Celia[/name_f]! [name_m]How[/name_m] is [name_f]Iselin[/name_f] pronounced?

If it’s helpful to see our full list of names with an English origin, it’s here: English Names | Nameberry Many “English names” are in fact not English at all!

It’s interesting to see people here saying that [name_f]Signe[/name_f] is pronounced as [name_f]Sina[/name_f]. I live in the U.S. and have met 2 young ladies named [name_f]Signe[/name_f] and both pronounced their names like [name_m]SIG[/name_m]-nee. One was in is Idaho, the other in Pennsylvania, so it’s not even a localized trend. I guess it’s just one of those names with pronunciation that changes with the languages, like [name_f]Julia[/name_f] in English and Spanish (Joo-lee-a vs. Hoo-lee-a).