Scandinavian Given Names

Denmark Finland Iceland Norway Sweden

Sometimes reading a name in a record can be challenging. Other times you can read the name but may not be sure of the gender (based on the name alone). In the 1980s the Genealogical Society of Utah published a book called Scandinavian Records Extraction: An Instructional Guide, which included a list of 4,562 Nordic given names. Each given name has either female or male in the adjacent column to indicate the gender associated with that name. Below is a copy of that list and names which have been added as they have been found in the records. Because it is a long list, you might want to use the Ctrl-F function to go directly to the section you need.

B
(Note: B and P may be interchanged)

C
(Names beginning with C can also begin with K)

D
(Names beginning with D can also begin with T)

E
(Note: Some names beginning with E may also begin with Ä)

F
(Names beginning with F can also begin with V)

G
(Names beginning with G might also begin with K, especially in Finland)

I
(Note: I, J and Y can be interchangeable both in the beginning and in the middle of names)

J
(Note: I, J, and Y can be interchangeable, both in the beginning and middle of names)

K
(Names beginning with K can also begin with C)

(K and G may be interchangeable, particularly in Finnish names)

P
(P and B may be interchangeable)

S
(Names beginning with the letter “s” can also begin with the letter “z”)

T
(Names beginning with the letter T can also begin with the letter Th. T may also be interchangeable with D)

V
(The letters V and W are used interchangeably)

W
Note: Vs and Ws are often interchangable.

Y
(Note: Y, I, and J may be interchanged in some instances)

Z
(S and Z may be used interchangeably)

Ä
(E may have been used in place of Ä)