Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Scandi boy name: Björn vs Nils

37 replies

NorseMum · 25/04/2026 21:30

Hello, looking for potential future sibling names and want to know which one you think would work best in the UK: Björn or Nils? Really like both (they are family names on my side)

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Sweetswede · 29/04/2026 12:17

HughManity · 29/04/2026 12:02

@KostaBoda , English monoglots struggle with digraphs and diphthongs.

Björn Ulvaeus or Björn Borg are be-YORN here. I think it's probably nearer Yearn with a B at the start (in the same way as Burn is Urn with a B at the start).

Yes, very similar to BYearn!

HughManity · 29/04/2026 12:02

@KostaBoda , English monoglots struggle with digraphs and diphthongs.

Björn Ulvaeus or Björn Borg are be-YORN here. I think it's probably nearer Yearn with a B at the start (in the same way as Burn is Urn with a B at the start).

KostaBoda · 29/04/2026 01:20

HughManity · 28/04/2026 22:31

Björn - how many syllables and which one is stressed? Do the trema indicate an umlaut or a diaeresis?

Show quote history

Björn: one syllable. The 'bj' is a digraph, and blends with the 'örn' to form a monosyllabic word, much like in 'storm'. It rhymes with the English 'burn'; the letter ö is read as the phonemes ir / er / ur in the English words Sir / her / fur. It is a 'long' vowel sound in this name.
I have never heard ABBA Björn (Ulvaeus') or Björn Borg's names said correctly in all my years in England, but always as with two syllables, separating a 'bee' from a sort of 'orn'.
OP, I really love Björn, but it seems like hard work in the UK. Nils, on the other hand, always sounded like 'pilsner' to me when I was little, which made me not like it.

NewGirlInTown · 29/04/2026 00:28

I absolutely love Nils. Fabulous choice.

Puffinshop · 28/04/2026 23:33

NorseMum · 28/04/2026 22:04

So, I'd say "Nils" as in "hills" with an "N"... Björn is trickier to explain...almost like "Bey-uhrn" 😬

Show quote history

I think you just answered your own question with this response 😅

But do you live in Sweden and the child has a British father so will be visiting British family regularly? This is our situation, but Iceland not Sweden, and a few mispronunciations or misspellings are not a huge deal, as long as the grandparents/uncles/aunts have got it down. Or are you living in the UK?

If the latter it really has to be Nils out of the two imo, unless you're fine with him being Bee-orn / Buh-jorn.

QAOPspaceman · 28/04/2026 22:59

Björn 1
Nils 0

HughManity · 28/04/2026 22:51

Thanks.
The "Bey-uhrn" suggested 2, the IPA (ˈbjœːɳ) 1.

Sweetswede · 28/04/2026 22:47

HughManity · 28/04/2026 22:31

Björn - how many syllables and which one is stressed? Do the trema indicate an umlaut or a diaeresis?

Show quote history

Björn is one syllable.

Ö is a letter (vowel). The Swedish alphabet has three more letters than the English alphabet. They're Å, Ä, Ö and come at the end of the alphabet.

The dots do not indicate umlaut or diaeresis.

HughManity · 28/04/2026 22:31

NorseMum · 28/04/2026 22:04

So, I'd say "Nils" as in "hills" with an "N"... Björn is trickier to explain...almost like "Bey-uhrn" 😬

Show quote history

Björn - how many syllables and which one is stressed? Do the trema indicate an umlaut or a diaeresis?

Original poster
NorseMum · 28/04/2026 22:04

Purpletable · 28/04/2026 16:12

How are both names meant to be pronounced OP?

So, I'd say "Nils" as in "hills" with an "N"... Björn is trickier to explain...almost like "Bey-uhrn" 😬

OP posts:
HughManity · 28/04/2026 16:57

OP just said Scandi.
@ArtemisNutella , I think English-only speakers say Bee-orn not Byorn, and some will say B-jorn.
Borg was always Borg in the UK not Bory.

I think plenty of people won't know who Björn Ulvaeus is.

sayitisntsoo · 28/04/2026 16:53

I'm not keen on Bjorn partly because of the Abba connection so I'd choose Nils even though I wouldn't know how to pronounce it and it makes me think 'nil' or nothing which is a bit negative.
If I was to choose a Scandi boys name then I love Lars.

CaffeinatedSeagull · 28/04/2026 16:51

Nils out of those two, primarily as Bjorn just makes me think of ABBA.

We went through Scandi names and short listed Elias if we had a boy.

museumum · 28/04/2026 16:39

I would definitely avoid a non standard English alphabet letter. Even a Gaelic strac is a pain in the UK.

Puffinshop · 28/04/2026 16:37

ArtemisNutella · 28/04/2026 16:23

Surely no one would see Björn and say it Bee-jorn?! 99% of the world’s population have heard ABBA and must have heard the name Björn pronounced.

Personally I love the name and would choose it over Nils. One of my favourite names is Thorbjörn. I won’t be having a son so I’m keeping that one saved for a future dog.

Some people bloody well would, you can count on it. I was astonished the first time someone pronounced the j in my daughter's name - luckily we don't live in the UK so it's a rare enough occurrence that she finds it hilarious rather than annoying.

My daughter's name is much more commonly used in the UK than Bjorn, almost the most fool proof choice there was apart from Anna or María.

whattheysay · 28/04/2026 16:25

ArtemisNutella · 28/04/2026 16:23

Surely no one would see Björn and say it Bee-jorn?! 99% of the world’s population have heard ABBA and must have heard the name Björn pronounced.

Personally I love the name and would choose it over Nils. One of my favourite names is Thorbjörn. I won’t be having a son so I’m keeping that one saved for a future dog.

They’ve heard of ABBA and their songs but do they know the names of the group? If I asked my teenage son what their names are I would bet he would not have one clue.
Also my daughters in their twenties wouldn’t be able to name them

ArtemisNutella · 28/04/2026 16:23

Surely no one would see Björn and say it Bee-jorn?! 99% of the world’s population have heard ABBA and must have heard the name Björn pronounced.

Personally I love the name and would choose it over Nils. One of my favourite names is Thorbjörn. I won’t be having a son so I’m keeping that one saved for a future dog.

whattheysay · 28/04/2026 16:22

HughManity · 28/04/2026 16:18

@whattheysay , the Swedish Björn is like Biorn, Bjørn is Byurn.
Nils is sort of half way between Nills and Neels.

ˈbjœːɳ
ˈnɪlːs

I speak Swedish so I know how it’s pronounced. Norwegians and Danish would have a clue how it’s pronounced though it would sound a bit different, but ask a non Scandinavian and they would not know. Unless they’re old enough to remember Björn Borg but they would still pronounce it Bee-Orn

HughManity · 28/04/2026 16:18

@whattheysay , the Swedish Björn is like Biorn, Bjørn is Byurn.
Nils is sort of half way between Nills and Neels.

ˈbjœːɳ
ˈnɪlːs

greglet · 28/04/2026 16:15

Nils, mostly because non-standard letters are a pain from an admin perspective.

My daughter’s name is Linnea, which I didn’t think was that difficult to pronounce, but the number of times we get ‘linear’ has really surprised me!

Purpletable · 28/04/2026 16:12

How are both names meant to be pronounced OP?

whattheysay · 28/04/2026 16:10

No one unless they know Swedish or Norwegian/danish will pronounce it correctly. It will be pronounced Bee-Orn and as someone else said, some people will pronounce it Bee-Jorn with the J sounding like the G in George
The Ö will throw people won’t know how that pronounced. Put J and Ö together and you can forget it

I would go with Nils but people may pronounce it Neels or Neils.

HughManity · 28/04/2026 15:58

Sneakyapples2021 · 28/04/2026 15:51

Byurn

Show quote history

That's the Danish pronunciation not the Swedish.

Sneakyapples2021 · 28/04/2026 15:51

cheesepasties · 28/04/2026 15:47

What is the correct way to pronounce Bjorn? I have always said it to rhyme with ‘born’ - is this wrong?

Byurn

Crikeyalmighty · 28/04/2026 15:48

My friend is called Jonas - that’s nice too -

Swipe left for the next trending thread