Skip to main content

Ancient Germanic Female Deities

Loki_and_Idun_-_John_Bauer
Loki and Idun by John Bauer


Here is a list of ancient Germanic goddess and personifications. There is some overlap with the goddesses of the Norse pantheon, and I've limited it to those names that I think would wear well today on modern babies. Of the following names, only the following were used in 2016. Sol was given to 91 girls, Ran to 5 girls, Saga to 9 girls, and Beyla to 6 girls.


Beyla - as a possible agricultural personification, her name could mean "cow," "bean," or "bee," but she has been associated with bees and mead, so my guess is "bee." However, there's been a proposed connection to the reconstructed Proto-Norse name Baunila, which means "little bean." This is also a Spanish and Italian girls name.

Fulla - possibly means "bountiful." Her other name is Volla, which I think is equally accessible as a name. She is a virgin goddess in Old Norse mythology.

Gersemi - means "treasure." She is daughter of Freyja.

Hariasa - pronounced HAR-ee-ah-sah, this sounds a bit like Harriet. Strictly a Germanic goddess, not much is known about her.

Idunn - from Norse mythology, this is the goddess of apples and youth, wife of the god Bragi. The core idea of her may go back even further in time.

Nanna - quite possibly means both "woman, mother," and "daring one, she who empowers." The most well known fact about Nanna was her deep love for her husband, the god Baldr.

Ran - a personification of the sea, her name is pronounced to rhyme with "con" or the name Han (Solo). Her name means "robber." Her husband is Aegir.

Saga - pronounced the same in English, this name might be the most intuitive for Americans. Her name means "seeress," like an oracle. It was proposed that Saga was another name for the goddess Frigg, Odin's wife, but Saga was seen as a sage and possibly had a great command of poetry.

Sif - Thor's wife. Her name means "affinity, connection by marriage." She was known for her amazing golden hair.

Sigyn - pronounced SIG-in, this was Loki's wife. Her name means "victorious female friend." She may date back to a much older Germanic pagan goddess.

Sol, Sunna - Sunna is pronounced SOON-uh. Meaning "sun," she is the sun personified in Germanic myth. She may date all the way back to the Nordic Bronze Age.

Tamfana - tahm-FAH-nuh, whose name might mean "pine tree." She was probably a moon goddess or mother goddess, and may have originally been linked to older goddesses, maybe even the Punic and Phoenician goddess Tanit.

Zisa - which I recently wrote about here, was likely Ziu/Tyr's wife. She has her own unique Germanic story.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sailor Moon Baby Names

As a long-time fan girl of Sailor Moon, I was thrilled to hear about a potential reboot of the series, which was supposed to be in 2013 and has now been pushed to 2014. It's been over 20 years since Sailor Moon first aired, but many still get a warm fuzzy feeling when they think of the show. What is not often mentioned is how well researched Takeuchi's name choices were. She covered gems, minerals, astrology, mythology and creative word choices. Today I'll talk about Sailor Moon names. Usagi Tsukino- Bunny - Serena - Princess Serenity - Sailor Moon Usagi means "rabbit" in Japanese, referring to the Japanese legend of the rabbit on the moon, and Tsukino means "moon." In the translation of the comics, Usagi was renamed Bunny appropriately. Keeping with the mythological aspects of the moon and both Greek and Roman moon goddesses, Usagi's character was given the concept of "serene," which gave her the name Serena in the American TV series (a...
3 comments
Read more

Galician Baby Names

I grew up on a street that was named an Italian variant of Roger. When I got married and we bought our first house, it turned out to be on Roger Street. Once noting that coincidence, I started searching for other variants of the name. However, female variants turned out to be pretty nonexistent. Save for Roxeria, which I later discovered was the Galician female form, possibly pronounced rohz-AIR-ee-uh. That led me to a few lists of female Galician names, ranging from common to rare. Here is a sampling of names not often heard here in the states... Albina Alda Alma Alodia Aloia Amada Amadora Amalia Amparo Anisia Antia Araceli Aranzazu Artemisa Avelina Azucena Baia Balbina Baltasara Beatriz Benvida Berenice Bieita Branca Braulia Caetana Carola Casilda Casimira Ceferina Celsa Cipriana Cira Clorinda Coralia Cornelia Cosima Davinia Delfina Desideria Dionisia Dominga Dorinda Dorotea Dositea Edelmira Edenia Elba Elvira Emiliana Etelvina ...
2 comments
Read more

Witchy Baby Girl Names!

Circe Invidiosa by John William Waterhouse Have a little girl due in October? Looking to name a character? Here's my [seemingly endless] list of witchy-sounding baby names. Most of them also fit in the "clunky but cool" category, or "vintage." Most plants, trees, herbs, spices, flowers, gems, space and nature names fit the bill, because in stories and current practice these things are useful to witches. I've put any actual witch names from legend, myth, literature, movies, etc in bold and up front. I have not considered the names of actual, living people or their Pagan names, and I've left out any characters that only have a surname, or truly ridiculous given names. In the second half you'll see a list of names that, to my knowledge, have not been used for witch characters. Please know that this is not a complete list. Wikipedia has an almost complete list you can view  here . Tabitha, Samantha, Endora, Clara, Serena  (Bewitched) Katrina...
25 comments
Read more