Meanings & themes
Viking names from the sagas
13 names · 4 girls · 9 boys · records through 2025
These are the historical Norse names rather than the gods: sailors, settlers and saga figures, several of whom reached North America five centuries before anyone else wrote it down.
This guide has 13 names: 4 girl names and 9 boy names. A curated set of Norse and saga-era names matched against the latest US records; only names in real use appear. Built from US Social Security birth records through 2025. Tap + beside any name to keep it on your shortlist as you read.
Before the names
Icelandic naming kept most of them in continuous use, which is why they survive as names rather than as artefacts — and why the American revival has real material to draw on.
Each entry below appears in current US birth records with its live rank.
Girl names
4 names
Boy names
9 names
- Finn#206 today
- Bo#449 today
- Erik#545 today
- Gunnar#612 today
- Magnus#763 today
- Bjorn#829 today
- Leif#917 today
- Ivar#1382 today
- Lars#1886 today
Every rank and count here is published by the US Social Security Administration and refreshed each year when the new figures land. The method is stated at the top of this page.
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