Once Upon a Time Baby Names

Saint Sunniva via http://bergen.katolsk.no/?p=5824 Sunniva (SOON-ee-vah) has a beautiful meaning, "sun gift," from its Anglo-Saxon form Sunngifu. It can be found recorded as the variant forms Suniva, Sunneva, Sunnifa, Sunnefa, Syneva, Synna, Synne (which became very popular), Synnev, Synneva, Synneve, Synnevi, Synniva, Synva, and more. The earliest recorded use was Sweden in 1353 but the name is attested to Saint Sunniva from the 10th century, who was an Irish princess. Unfortunately she died from a cave collapsing in Norway after fleeing an invading king who wanted to marry her. Miracles were reported on the little island she escaped to, Selja, with her followers. Her brother became Saint Alban. Their tales were written about in Latin and Icelandic. This Scandinavian name has been used in Norway (most usage, rank #66 in 2015, also common there in Middle Ages), Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Finland, hitting the U.S. charts in 2005 with only 5 births....

The Valkyrie by Arthur Rackham Valkyries are a magical, powerful, bold choice for parenting inspiration, and some have considered using Valkyrie itself as a given name - 48 in 2016, the highest number so far. But after seeing the imagery of a beautiful warrior from myth, we have to face the fact that Hrist and Sigrdrifa are not going to go over so well in the U.S. Using Valkyrie as a name, then, might just be the way to go, but Valkyrija and Valkyria (both val-KEER-ee-uh / val-KEER-yah) have been used - officially accepted as a name in Iceland in 2015. Here are a few others to mull over: Brynhildr - could be shortened to Bryn (or just go with Bryn as an "honor" name). It could mean "armor battle" or "bright battle." Eir - pronounced AYR, this is easy to say and short, but the spelling and pronunciation is not intuitive to a native English speaker. It means "peace, mercy." Herja - prononced HARE-yah, its a lot like Freja or Anja, so if...

Embla and Ask were the first humans created by Odin, Vili, and Ve, three gods in the Old Norse pantheon. Embla was carved from an alder tree and Ask was carved from an ash tree. Their story is found in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda . Embla (EM-bluh) sounds a bit like the word emblem, giving it a shiny nobility sort of feel. Contrary to popular belief, there is no "blah" sound in it. The last three lettters are like you're going to say "blush." It is used in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland (where it last ranked #7 in 2015). However, there are no U.S. statistics. Most believe her meaning is "elm tree," from Old Norse almr , but no one is quite certain. Another suggested meaning is "vine," and with that meaning the name has been connected to the Persian version of the Adam and Eve story, who were also made from trees. It is very possible that because this mythology is so old, something got lost in translation or throughout th...

  Blessed Richenza When first digging into this baby name, I was surprised I had never heard it before, since there are several namesakes. The name is traditionally regarded as Polish, although it came from the Old Norse and Icelandic name Rikissa , meaning "wealthy; power." However, other sources suggest it might come from Ricarda, meaning "great ruler." The name has been written as Ryksa, Rixa, Richenza, and Richeza. The name Richenda evolved from Richenza. There are similar, partly related names such as Richmay and Richemaya, Richmal, and Richilda. Starting with the earliest known namesake, Richeza of Lotharingia, we find that this name is given to royalty more than once. This woman was born about 995 or 1000 to German nobility and married the King of Poland. Although her husband didn't stay king for long, Richeza became a nun and is now known as Blessed Richeza of Lotharingia. She had three children: Casimir I the Restorer, Ryksa, Queen of Hungary, an...

  These two Welsh beauties both mean "snow white," from the elements eir , "snow," and wen , "white." Neither was used in the U.S. in 2011 (or ever, I'm certain). White Pages tells me there are no living people in the U.S. named Eirawen and only 4 named Gwyneira. Eirawen is pronounced EYE-rah-wen, Gwyneira is pronounced gwin-EYE-rah. The South Wales pronunciation for Gwyneira is gwin-AY-rah, and a lesser used spelling is Gweneira. The girl's name Eirwen also means "snow white" in Welsh. Eirwen is AYR-wen in South Wales, and IYR-wen in North Wales. The Old Norse female name Eir (AYR, rolled-tongue on the R) belonged to the goddess of healing in the Norse pantheon, and the name meant "mercy, healing." It is still used in Iceland and Norway. The variant Eira, separate from the Welsh name, is also used in Finland, Norway and Sweden. In Norway, she last ranked at #99 in 2013, as well as Sweden and Finland. The goddess Eir was ...

I've seen Ismay (iz-may) getting a lot of love online lately, so I thought I'd give you the history. There might be no coincidence that Ismay sounds so close to Esme, meaning "esteemed," although a lot of people like to debate where it came from and how it was used. Some say it's a variant of Ismene, meaning "knowledgeable," or Ismenia, whose origins are equally debatable, but could come from Yasmin. Some say it's a Germanic compound name from iron and strength , some say it has Celtic origins, and some say it is a variant (possibly Anglicized) spelling of Esme, which is French. This is evidenced by variant spellings like Esmay. However, the first record of Ismay could be one in Lancashire, England, and the name could predate the Norman conquest in some form. I've also seen it argued that Ismay comes from Ishmael. Ismay can be found as a surname, as is the case with famous British businessman Bruce Ismay, associated with the Titanic, but also ...

The Prose Edda , at first simply called Edda , was composed by Snorri Sturluson, an Icelandic scholar. The title was changed from Edda to Prose Edda to differentiate between the Poetic Edda , from an anonymous author. Both works contain Old Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and both were written around the same time, somewhere between 985 and 1600 AD, but Poetic Edda came first, as the Prose Edda cites parts of it. The Poetic Edda comes from a medieval Icelandic manuscript called Codex Regius. J.R.R. Tolkien and Ezra Pound are just two authors who claimed to have used the  Poetic Edda as style inspiration for their work. Both works showcased things like skaldic tradition, poetic meter, alliterative verse, and strong imagery. The stories deal with gods, princes, the history of the universe, and it sometimes reads like a history or guide. Edda has a few different meanings. The one most closely linked to the books is Old Norse, and it could mean "grea...

Kol from The Vampire Diaries Kol is a pretty straight-forward old Viking name meaning "coal," in Old Norse, but it can also mean "dark," and "black." Cole/Kole, Colby/Kolby and Colton/Kolton are the most common variations seen today, and Kol/Col is a pretty common name prefix and suffix. It is more commonly seen as Cole or Kole due to it's transfer into Old English usage. Kolt/Colt and Kolton/Colton both meaning "coal town," although Colt can also refer to a young male horse. Now, the most common namesake right now is the fictional character Kol from The Vampire Diaries , part of an ancient Viking line turned vampire. There is a female variant, Kolfinna , meaning "dark (from the coal element) and fair," which is well used in Iceland, and there were no recorded births for it (ever) in the U.S. There's also the male Scandinavian variant Kolbjorn, which has not seen use in the U.S. In 2011 there were 9 baby boys named Khol...