Bjorn
Masculine · “Bear”
Bjorn is the Old Norse word for bear, used as a personal name since the Viking Age and never abandoned since — it is still an ordinary name on a Swedish or Norwegian class list. In English it lands as a single stride of sound, one syllable, no soft edges. In the United States it clusters where Scandinavian families settled and farmed, Minnesota above all.
How old is the name Bjorn?
Bjorn first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Bjorn is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,100 people named Bjorn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bjorn most popular?
Bjorn peaked in 2021, reaching #765 nationally. Today it ranks #829, 64 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Bjorn appears on these lists:
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Old Norse bjǫrn (bear) to Bjorn
The story of Bjorn
The name comes straight from bjǫrn, the Old Norse word for bear, and it was in use as a man's name across Scandinavia during the Viking Age, turning up in the sagas and in runic inscriptions. It never went out of circulation: Björn in Sweden and Iceland, Bjørn in Norway and Denmark, borne continuously from the medieval period into the present day. The same bear element sits inside older compound names like Ásbjǫrn and Þorbjǫrn, where it was joined to a god's name. Bjorn reached the United States with nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Nordic emigration, losing its diacritic at the port and in the paperwork, which is why the American spelling is the bare one.
Meaning
Bear
From Old Norse bjǫrn, 'bear' — still the everyday word for the animal in Swedish (björn) and Icelandic.
How the name formed
- Old Norse bjǫrnbear
- Bjǫrn
- Björn / Bjørn
- Bjorn
Related forms: Björn · Bjørn · Björn · Bjarni · Bjarne · Björn
Pronouncing Bjorn
BYORN
One syllable in Scandinavian use, the b and y running together. Many American speakers say it as two, BEE-orn, and both are widely heard here.
Nicknames for Bjorn
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1925
- Most boys named
- 2024331 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #765reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −10.0%298 in 2025, from 331
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Bjorn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Björn in Swedish — spelling variant
- Bjørn in Norwegian / Danish — spelling variant
- Björn in Icelandic — spelling variant
- Bjarni in Icelandic — related form
- Bjarne in Norwegian — related form
- Björn in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, California, Washington.
Bjorns among us
people named Bjorn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,732 born in 2025 was named Bjorn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Malcom test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bjorn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Malcom climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Malcom's path sketches the road Bjorn is walking now.
Bjorn sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Bjorn is headed
Bjorn should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Bjorn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bjorn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, four sounds, nothing to trim — it works the same in full on a roll call and at the back door.
- A plain word meaning: bear, with no scholarly dispute behind it.
- Unbroken use from the Viking Age to the present, so it is old without being a revival.
- Current and ordinary in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, and recognized across northern Europe.
- Long established in the Upper Midwest, where Scandinavian settlement left the name familiar.
- The bare spelling is the American one; the Swedish Björn and Norwegian Bjørn both carry a mark. Expect relatives abroad to add it, and forms at home to lose it.
- The initial bj- is unusual in English and will be sounded out. Some people will say BYORN, others BEE-orn, and correcting it will be a small lifelong routine.
- There is no traditional short form. A child who wants one will have to be given it — B.J., Bear — rather than inheriting it from the name.
- Outside the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, a Bjorn will usually be the only one anyone has met, which cuts both ways: no confusion, and no shortcut past the explanation.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Bjorn
Masculine · #829 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bjorns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,100 people named Bjorn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bjorn in 2025?
- Bjorn ranks #829 among US boy names in 2025, with 298 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bjorn?
- About 1 in every 5,732 US boys born in 2025 was named Bjorn — 298 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bjorn with classmates?
- Bjorn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bjorn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ignacio#829 · Jefferson#829 · Flynn#827 · Drake#827 · Roger#832 · Rayden#832 · Avi#832 · Yisroel#824
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bjorn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bjorn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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