40 of the best Viking baby names
A little nod to the old Norse
By Rebel Wylie
Parenting Editor - Digital / April 05 2023
In Viking days, great care was taken when assigning a name to a baby.
Traditional Viking naming conventions meant that names were often chosen in one of three ways.
Babies could be named after a relative, which was believed to pass on the ancestor’s luck to the new babe.
Then of course there were the Gods. Naming a child after a God was just one of the ways that Vikings chose to honour the gods they revered so much. New names were also created that stemmed from God names, such as Thorald or Thorgest from the name Thor.
Another naming tradition in Viking families was to name all siblings with names that began with the same letter or sound, such as Astrid, Aster, Asta, Ashild, etc.
The result is a whole list of baby names that pay tribute to these incredible Scandinavian seafarers. You can find some of our favourites in the gallery below ...
