This guide starts with a list of over 50 Scandinavian boy names. It then explains the origins and meanings of some of them and discusses their variations in spelling across the different Scandinavian languages.
At the end of this article, we’ll see a list with examples of 50 well-known individuals with Scandinavian male names.
Scandinavian boy names come from the Scandinavian languages, which include Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, and Faroese.
They do not include names from Finnish. That’s because Finnish is not a Scandinavian language (but it is a Nordic language). We have a separate article on Finnish boy names.
The Scandinavian languages don’t all use the same alphabet. That explains why some Scandinavian boy names have different spellings across the different Scandinavian languages.
| Language | Alphabet |
|---|---|
| Swedish | Consists of the 26 letters used in the English alphabet plus the letters å, ä, and ö. |
| Norwegian | Consists of the 26 letters used in the English alphabet plus the letters æ, ø, and å. |
| Danish | Same as the Norwegian alphabet. |
| Icelandic | Has several letters not found in English, including ð, þ, æ, and ö (plus some letters with accents like ó, ý, á, and a few more). |
In the table below are some examples of Scandinavian male names with different spellings in Swedish and Danish.
| Swedish | Danish |
|---|---|
| Sören | Søren |
| Björn | Bjørn |
| Torbjörn | Thorbjørn |
| Esbjörn | Asbjørn |
| Börje | Børge |
| Jörgen | Jørgen |
The Icelandic versions of some male names contain the letters ‘Þ’ and ‘ð’. Those two letters existed in Old English as well. But they don’t exist in modern English, nor do they exist in Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish.
| Icelandic | Norwegian |
|---|---|
| Þorsteinn | Torstein |
| Þórður | Tord |
| Guðmundur | Gudmund |
| Sigurður | Sigurd |
| Eðvarð | Edvard |
| Ólafur | Olaf / Olav |
Patronymic surnames are last names derived from the father’s first name (or that of an ancestor). When you look at common last names in Scandinavian countries, you can see the Scandinavian male names they come from.
English also has some patronymic surnames like Johnson (derived from the name John), Wilson (derived from William), and Richardson (from Richard).
The common patronymic surnames in the Scandinavian countries reveal the frequently used Scandinavian male names at the time of the formation of those surnames.
It is interesting to notice how Swedish has used a different suffix to form patronymic surnames compared to Danish and Norwegian.
| Scandinavian last name |
Scandinavian male name |
|---|---|
| Swedish | |
| Larsson | Lars |
| Karlsson | Karl |
| Andersson | Anders |
| Johansson | Johann |
| Nilsson | Nils |
| Danish / Norwegian | |
| Andersen | Anders |
| Larsen | Lars |
| Olsen | Ole |
| Rasmussen | Rasmus |
| Hansen | Hans |
| Jensen | Jens |
| Nielsen | Niels |
| Icelandic | |
| Guðmundsson | Guðmundur |
| Einarsson | Einar |
| Ólafsson | Ólafur |
The Scandinavian languages evolved from Old Norse, the ancient language of the Vikings. It is not surprising, therefore, that many Scandinavian boy names come from Old Norse words. Here are some examples:
| Name | From Old Norse terms that means: |
|---|---|
| Arne | from the Old Norse word “ǫrn” (which means “eagle”) |
| Bjørn / Björn | from the Old Norse word “bjǫrn” (which means “bear”) |
| Gunnar | from the Old Norse words for “battle” and “warrior” |
| Sven | from an Old Norse word that means “boy” |
| Thor | from the name of the hammer-wielding god in Norse mythology who is associated with thunder |
| Torsten / Torstein | from the Norse god Thor plus the Old Norse word for “stone” |
| Torbjörn | from the Old Norse name Þorbjǫrn (which combines the words for “Thor” and “bear”) |
| Ingemar / Ingmar | from Yngvi (a god in Norse mythology who is also known as Freyr) plus “mærr” (an old Norse word that means “glorious”) |
Not all Scandinavian boy names come from Old Norse, though. Some come from Latin, like the following:
| Name | Origin |
|---|---|
| Lars | from Laurentius, a Latin name that is also the origin of the English name Laurence |
| Albin | from the Latin name Albīnus, itself derived from a Latin adjective that means “white” |
| Rasmus | from Erasmus, a Latin name that comes from Ancient Greek |
| Per | from Petrus, a Latin name from Ancient Greek, which is also the origin of the English name Peter |
A famous namesake can make a name more attractive. When searching for Scandinavian boy names, there are plenty of famous individuals with such names, as you can see in the following long list.
| Name | Occupation |
|---|---|
| Hans Christian Andersen | Danish author (he is the author of well-known fairy tales, including The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Clothes) |
| Anders Celsius | 18th-century Swedish scientist (the Celsius temperature scale is named after him) |
| Carl Linnaeus | Swedish scientist |
| Edvard Grieg | Norwegian composer |
| Lars von Trier | Danish film director (cofounder of the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement) |
| Henrik Ibsen | Norwegian playwright |
| Lars Ulrich | Danish musician (drummer for Metallica) |
| Niels Bohr | Danish physicist who won the Nobel Prize |
| Pär Lagerkvist | Swedish author and Nobel Prize laureate |
| Rudolf Nilsen | Norwegian poet |
| Søren Kierkegaard | Danish philosopher |
| Stieg Larsson | Swedish author who wrote the Millennium trilogy which includes the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |
| Edvard Munch | Norwegian painter (he painted The Scream) |
| Leif Erikson | Norse explorer (he is thought to be the first European to sail to America) |
| Thor Heyerdahl | Norwegian adventurer |
| Ulf Ekberg | Swedish musician who co-founded the pop group Ace of Base |
| Ingmar Bergman | Swedish film director who made the movie The Seventh Seal |
| Gunnar Myrdal | Swedish economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics |
| Viggo Mortensen | Danish-American actor (he played in several films directed by David Cronenberg, including the movie Eastern Promises) |
| Arne Jacobsen | Danish architect |
| Björn Borg | Swedish tennis player |
| Björn Ulvaeus | Swedish musician (one of the founders of the band ABBA) |
| Einar Gerhardsen | former Prime Minister of Norway |
| Göran Tunström | Swedish author |
| Roald Amundsen | Norwegian explorer |
| Gustaf Skarsgård | Swedish actor |
| Håkan Nesser | Swedish author |
| Magnus Carlsen | Norwegian chess player who won the World Chess Championship several times |
| Halldór Laxness | Icelandic writer who won the Nobel Prize |
| Ole Kirk Christiansen | founder of the Lego company |
| Jørgen Vig Knudstorp | former CEO of the Lego company |
| Sven Nykvist | Swedish filmmaker |
| Rasmus Rask | Danish linguist |
| Aksel Sandemose | Danish-Norwegian author who introduced the concept of the Law of Jante |
| Ragnar Frisch | Norwegian economist who won the Nobel Prize |
| Axel Törneman | Swedish painter |
| Torsten Nils Wiesel | Swedish neurophysiologist who won the Nobel Prize |
| Asger Jorn | Danish artist |
| Svante Pääbo | Swedish geneticist who won the Nobel Prize |
| Ólafur Elíasson | Icelandic-Danish artist |
| Magne Furuholmen | Norwegian musician (A-ha band) |
| Trygve Haavelmo | Norwegian economist who won the Nobel Prize |
| Kai Siegbahn | Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize winner |
| Per Kirkeby | Danish author |
| Dag Hammarskjöld | Swedish diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize recipient |
| Ingvar Kamprad | founder of IKEA |
| Morten Harket | Norwegian singer (lead vocalist of the band a-ha) |
| Stig Anderson | Swedish music manager (he managed the band ABBA) |
| Henning Mankell | Swedish author who wrote a series of mystery novels |
| Kjell Magne Bondevik | former prime minister of Norway |