Viking Names
Asmund
Ásmundr is a very common name in Scandinavia throughout the Viking Age and later. It is recorded in medieval documents from both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, in field-names in Lincolnshire, and in major names in North and West Yorkshire such as Osmotherley and Osmondthorpe. It is an Old Norse compound name. Its first element Ás- ‘a god’, frequent in Viking Age names, presumably refers to Old Norse deities such as Odin and Thor, though the latter name appears in its own right in many names, both male and female, while Odin is a very rare element in personal names. The second element-mundr is either Old West Norse ‘protector’ or Old Norse-Icelandic ‘gift’.
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Viking Names
Gerd
The name Gerðr was found in Iceland in the tenth century, but only possibly found in Norway in place-names. It is also found in one Danish place-name. It is is the first element in the place-name Garriston, North Yorkshire and in Getheston, a field name, in Monk Bretton, West Yorkshire. Gerðr is from the Primitive Scandinavian garðiōʀ. Perhaps it is the female equivalent of the Old Norse male personal name Garðr from Old Norse garðr ‘yard, enclosure’, but used in the older sense of ‘protection’. Gerðr occasionally appears as a form of the male personal name, Giarðarr. Many female names, such as Þorgerðr are formed with -gerðr as the second element. Gerðr also appears in Old Norse mythology as the name of the giantess with whom the god Freyr falls in love.
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Viking Names
Elli
Elli is a mythological name from Old Norse elli ‘old age’. In Snorri Sturluson’s Edda, Thor battles with Elli who here is a personification of old age in the guise of an old woman. Even the mighty Thor cannot defeat her! The name Elli may be found as an element in some West Yorkshire place-names, but it cannot actually be distinguished from the Old English male personal name Ælla or Ælli.
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Viking Names
Sunnifa
Sunnifa is a Scandinavianised form of Old English Sunngifu, which was the name of an Irish Christian queen who fled to Norway in the tenth century, according to her legend. She was later venerated as a saint and is the patron saint of Bergen and Western Norway. The name appears in Norway from the eleventh century onwards, but it is rare in Iceland and Denmark. Sunnifa is well-attested in medieval English documents notably in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, as well as some field-names in West Yorkshire.
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Viking Names
Api
Api is an original byname meaning ‘fool’. It is possibly found in the Norwegian place-name Apnes and there are a few instances in Old Danish, including perhaps, the runic forms abi and aba, although these forms may rather derive from Abbi or Æbbi. It is the first element in Apedale, North Yorkshire and Apethorpe, West Yorkshire.
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Viking Names
Asgerda
Ásgerða is a predominantly West Scandinavian (Norway and Iceland) name and is a weak form of the more common Ásgerðr, which is also found in Swedish runic inscriptions. Asgarthcroft, a field name recorded in 1523 in Aberford, West Yorkshire, had Ásgerða or Ásgerðr as its first element. Both elements are common in Old Norse name-formation, the first meaning Ás- ‘a god’ and the second being the feminine equivalent of masculine -garðr, probably meaning something like ‘protection’.
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Viking Names
Ingirid
Ingiríðr is very common in Norway but less so in Iceland. It is also recorded in Denmark and Sweden. The name is also attested in medieval documents from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. It is also the first element of the place-name Ingerthorpe, West Yorkshire. It is an Old Norse compound name with its first element Ingi–, which is of doubtful origin but might relate to a Greek word meaning ‘lance’ or ‘staff’ combined with –fríðr, related to Gothic frījōn ‘to love’, with original meaning ‘loved’, later ‘fair’. In origin it is thus the same name as Ingifríðr.
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Viking Names
Audhild
The Old Norse female personal name Auðhildr is a compound formed of the first element Auð-, which is obscure in origin but perhaps auðr ‘wealth’ or from the stem in auðinn ‘that befalls one’ and jóð ‘new-born baby’, combined with the second element -hildr ‘battle’. A woman by the name of Auðhildr was recorded recorded as having lived in the Orkneys in the early twelfth century. Auðhildr is believed to be the first element in the medieval field name of Odelgateland in Stainburn, West Yorkshire. It also appears in medieval Lincolnshire and Yorkshire documents. However, some forms of the name may represent the Continental Germanic female name Odil.