Danish boys? / Scandinavian-ish

[emmalinewre]

Hi!
Our DS is due soon and we'd love to honour his dad's heritage by using a Danish/Swedish/somewhat Scandinavian (or nod to, at least) name.
Would love some ideas!
Sadly Rasmus, Henrik, Soren, Jesper are all taken! 😔

Caspar, Nikolai (Nico).. other that most Danes I know are called things like Peter or Michael. They spell Caspar Kasper I think, but that would be a PITA in the UK

Thanks, can I ask what does pita mean?
Ah yes, we know some Danes with very standard names found in English. Love Nikolai but sounds super Russian to me?

Sven
Anders
Bjorn
Erik
Tomas
Mans

Lars

‘Pita ‘ means pain in the arse

😂 Oh! Yes, that makes sense now!

I love Magnus

Stellan

Aksel
Anton
Ask
August
Bo
Ditlev
Eskild
Erik
Eik
Frode
Gorm
Helmer
Holger
Hugo
Karl
Ketil
Magnus
Niels
Lauge
Ole
Pelle
Roar
Rolf
Rune
Sune
Thor
Troels
Toke
Ulf
Viggo

Its from the Greek 'Nicolaus'.
Danish King Frederik's younger brother Joachim called his firstborn Nikolai.

Jannik (pronounced Yannik)
Arvid
Christian
Morten
Jens
Mikkel
Niels

Seconding Lars!

Olaf!

Esben
Frederick
Lief
Ruben

Danes would spell it Frederik. Like the King.
Never seen a Dane called Lief. Ruben is a very rare name in Denmark.

👋 - 🇸🇪 here:

Fabian
Nils
Alfred
Niklas (Swedish version of Nicolas)
Filip
Joakim
Johannes
Pontus
Isak
Petter
Folke
Evald
Einar
Per

Look through Dad's family tree, including second names.
There is sure to be a name that jumps out.
What were your DH's grandfathers' names?

Matthias

Danish names in particular can be tricky because the pronunciation will likely be very distinctive. Even in Swedish, both consonant and vowel sounds can be counterintuitive. I'd run each name you like the look of on paper through some kind of pronunciation app if your DH's heritage is too distant for him to speak either language. Few Scandi names roll off an English tongue the way they're spoken 'at home'. Lndnmummy's list is pretty good in this respect.

Take care with online lists of baby names ‐most seem to contain names which weirdly have scant real life connection to the actual naming culture in X country. There might be mythological links, like the name of some obscure norse demigod or weapon or fertility rite, but nobody actually ever names their DC that, or would necessarily know what it refers to or how to pronounce it.

On such lists you can also find names which may be used in X country but which definitely are not of X origin. Searching -in X scandinavian language just now, so not an English search- for common X country boys' names, 6 out of the top 10 names were 'geo-neutral' Euronames with an English ring to them: William, George, Noah, Liam, Oliver and Hugo. And even in X country, that's how these names are thought of: as names that will travel well in an anglophone world and not stick awkwardly in someone's throat or mark the child out as being from anywhere in particular ‐nobody thinks: "Now that's a solid, traditional X name."

My personal 🇸🇪 favourites in no particular order are:
Vidar
Arvid
Edvin
Albin
Stig
Sven
Bertil
Emil
Valter

Awkward pronunciation but lovely:
Lars
Rune
Jon
Tor
Tryggve
Tage
Bo

I love the name Thorsten and would have used it if I'd had a boy (had two girls 🤷‍♀️).

Also love Leif which means 'heir' and 'loved'.

Popular Names in Denmark 2023 - Behind the Name
The top 5 in 2023 were Carl, William, Oscar, Alfred, Noah.

Top 100 Most Popular Swedish Girls & Boys Names For Your Baby - Hej Sweden
Top 5: Noah, Hugo, William, Liam, Nils

Yes! Emil! I love love love Emil

My favourites:

Magnus
Lars
Marcus
Aksel
Joachim
Johan
Leif
Erik

Not Cnut.

Per Hans Mats Sven Göran Bror Benny Björn Kristian