Scandinavian boys' names

[itssquidstella]

Baby due in May will have DH's (very English) surname, but we would both like to recognise my Norwegian heritage by picking a Scandinavian first name.

Thor is out because of the Marvel connotations, which is annoying as it was actually my great uncle's name and I really like it!

We both like:
Magnus
Torsten
Torvald (I prefer the Thorvald spelling but probably best avoided for reasons above!)

I like Soren and DH likes Arne, but we disagree on those. Any other suggestions?

Ingmar is a nice name.

I love Magnus, Erik and Ragnar. And Morten, because Harket

@GerbilCurse I think similar to Swedish? > With a softer g, like the (ng) sound as in ri (ng)

And the u as the u in “up”

So, Ma (ng) nus

Do you speak Norwegian? I wouldn't want a name I was pronouncing wrong. It's also helpful to know whether people in the UK will be saying it anywhere close to correct.

I looked at names for my half Icelandic kids that were on the more international side because it would have been too annoying for me to hear them pronounced completely wrong, beyond a bit of accent difference. Disclaimer, I don't speak Norwegian, but names like Emil, Johan, Mathias, Anton, Elias, Harald, Ivar, Magnus, Niklas, Oskar, Viktor, Erik would probably be a lot easier to live with in the UK than the Norwegian names that are completely unfamiliar to non-Norwegians.

@PuffinShop not fluently, no, so I'd rather have a name which can be anglicised without ruining it!

Magnus is probably the easiest choice for you. It recognises the heritage, but it's really easy to pronounce for English speakers as well and isn't in 'really unusual' territory for the child who will (I assume) grow up in England and might not want to stand out.

As the mother of a Henrik, it's a pity it's too close to a cousin for you to use! It's a name that works well in English (though it's misspelt A LOT of the time until people see it written down.

I also liked Magnus but DH vetoed that.

Jens, pronounced Yenz ( good norwegian friend of mine)
Ivar

How about Mathias? Pronounced Ma tee as.

I like Kjetil but you would be forever telling people how to pronounce it, same with Torsten I think. What about Jakob?

Accent on the middle part, I should add.

I do like Ivar - my grandfather was Ivor so pretty close!

Not keen on Mathias as it's too similar to Matthew, which is boring to me.

Do you really think Torsten is hard to pronounce? It's basically say what you see!

Ívar is one I considered myself, beautiful name. Ultimately I ruled it out because I thought people might either say Ivor or think his name was Eva. Better if you're in an area with a rhotic accent, like Scotland.

I do think it could probably work, though, those were just little niggles I had.

I basically just tried to pretend I had no knowledge of my second language and practised saying names with my natural English accent as though I was clueless. Even then I didn't manage to pick up all the issues, e.g. my parents are incapable of saying Elísabet which is one of my daughter's names. I thought it would be completely straightforward but they just ruin it. Luckily it's not her first name.

Torsten is just pronounced as it is written isn't it? Unless I've been saying it wrong all this time.

I've got a nephew called Thorfinn living in England and he doesn't have any issues.

Magnus nn Gus is an all-time fave of mine.

Gus is NOT a nickname for Magnus. In Orkney (where there are a lot of men called Magnus) then Mansie would be traditional. Mons or Mags also acceptable.

Erland, Olaf, Sigurd, Ranald (Scottish really but related to Ronald/Rognvald), Harald, Erik, Thorfinn, Haakon, Sweyn, Einar, Leif would all work in Orkney.

Love Torsten and don't see how there could be a pronounciation issue.

@PuffinShop yes if we did go for Ívar I would want to pronounce it 'properly' (or at least not the same as Ivor), which might cause problems.

My Norwegian accent is terrible anyway so probably best to avoid anything too easily butchered!

Soren Lorenson, a nice association for Soren here.

@JaninaDuszejko I love Soren Lorenson 😂

I know a Scottish Magnus, lovely name.
All your shortlisted choices are great names OP. I don’t know any Norwegians but my Swedish friends are Niklas, Jonas, Caspar, Esias . Joar.

How is Magnus pronounced in Norwegian? I've met two Danes with the name, neither of whom pronounce the 'g' at all. It's a long 'a' type sound (although not like in 'father', more like 'hour' - confusing, I know). It could be annoying if the name was never pronounced as you intended!

My daughter is Tora (Norwegian name, we live in Norway) you could go for the male Tore or the original Tor.
I love
Tor
Sondre
Torbjørn
Espen

Swede here.. What about Bjorn. Or Kalle.

@ClaudiaWankleman vey soft g, similar to Danish. But we'd probably pronounce it the English/Scottish way tbh.

Espen is nice! I’m not keen on Bjørn or Kalle - don't feel they work so well in the UK (although I like Kettil and that's pretty 'odd' to most English speakers).

How is Magnus pronounced in Norwegian? I've met two Danes with the name, neither of whom pronounce the 'g' at all.

Don't know how accurate they are but the online Norwegian pronunciation is closer to the Danish than the English imo. So I think it depends on whether the English pronunciation bothers you. We found that often the names that seem identical/similar had different enough pronunciations that many people in the UK wouldn't identify them as the same name.

I remember having a conversation about Magnus specifically as it's the name of one of the prime ministers children in Borgen which was on TV at the time. My colleagues thought the subtitles had changed the name :-)