The Most Popular Names in the Nordics (Real Data)

It’s pretty common to see top lists of the most common names in individual countries, but since the Nordic countries mostly have similar names (or at least a lot of overlap) I was curious about what the most common first names in the Nordic region as a whole are.

So I set out to gather all the name data I could find from the different countries national statistical databases, added them all up, merged similarly spelled versions and local varieties of names, and compiled the results into neatly presented tables that make it easy to see the popularity of each name in the region as a whole.

If you’d like to find more Nordic names, check out my ultimate list of Nordic & Norse names.

Let’s start off with the most common ones right off the bat:

Interestingly, most of these names can be traced back to Hebrew origins, with traditional Germanic and Old Norse names being slightly less popular overall these days.

Let’s keep going by looking at the full lists of the most popular first names in the Nordics next, along with a short meaning for each name. Then we’ll go on to figure out which names are most popular among newborn babies specifically.

We’ll start looking at what the most common names are for all the Nordic countries combined, for the population as a whole and for newborn babies specifically. I’ve only counted when the names are used as first names, and not as middle names.

Using the latest available data from the official statistics databases of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland, we can get a pretty good sense of which first names are most popular right now in the region as a whole. However, the numbers are not always exact, as some of the databases only cover the top 20, 50, or 100 names. The lists below still represents a fairly accurate estimation of the most popular names in the Nordics.

Top 20 Most Popular Female First Names in the Nordics

First Name	Meaning	# of Nordic People
Maria	Maria is the Greek and Roman form of the Aramaic Mariam (and Hebrew Mirjam). It’s been used in Sweden since the 14th century and means “rebellious”, “long-awaited child”, or “loved” depending on the source.	195779
Anna	Anna stems from the biblical Hebrew Channa (mother of Maria and grandmother of Jesus), which means “mercy” or “the pardoned”. May also be related to the Celtic goddess Anu.	186657
Eva	Eva is a biblical Hebrew name meaning “life-giver” or “living one”, stemming from the Hebrew word Chawa.	141800
Ann	Ann is the English form of Anna, originating from the Hebrew Channa (meaning “mercy” or “the pardoned”).	101777
Emma	Emma is a name with Germanic roots, originally a nickname for Ermin/Emerentia (meaning “great”, “whole”, or “universal”. It has later also been used as a nickname for Emilia.	98248
Lena	Lena can be either the Scandinavian short form of the biblical Hebrew name Magdalena (which means “woman from Magdala”), or the English short form of the Greek name Helena, which means “the enchanted” and is commonly associated with Helen of Troy (a.k.a. “the most beautiful woman in the world” in Ancient Greece).	97834
Sara	Sara is a biblical Hebrew name that means “countess”, and was the name of Abrahams wife in the old testament.	93623
Karin	Karin, or Karen, is the Scandinavian short form of Katarina, stemming from the Greek word Katharos which means “pure” or “chaste”.	93237
Marie	Marie is another form of Maria and comes from the Aramaic Mariam (and Hebrew Mirjam). It means “rebellious”, “long-awaited child”, or “loved” depending on the source.	87835
Inger	Inger is a Nordic name stemming from the Old Norse name Ingegerd, which means (“farmstead”, or “protected”).	81075
Kristina	Kristina is the female form of Kristian/Christian, which stems from the Latin Christianius that means “the Christian”.	78243
Susanne	Susanne is the French form of Susanna, a Greek name that originates from the Hebrew Shoshanna, which means “lily”.	74536
Ingrid	Ingrid is a Nordic name that comes from the Old Norse Ingifridh, which means “beautiful” or “beloved”.	74292
Jenny	Jenny, or Jennie, is the English short form of Johanna, which in turn stems from the Hebrew Jochanna (meaning “God has mercy”).	70450
Hanna	Hanna comes from the Hebrew Channa and means “mercy” or “the pardoned”.	69749
Linda	Linda is a short form of any name ending in -lind, -linde, or -linda which is usually names of German origins. Linda means “soft” or “mild” in Old German, and “the beautiful” or “the petite” in Latin.	69644
Ida	Ida is a name with Old German origins, and means either “the diligent” or “the active”. Popular in Scandinavia as the sister in Astrid Lindgren’s children’s book “Emil of Lönneberga” was called Ida.	69238
Marianne	Marianne is the French form of the Latin Mariana, which means “female”.	69221
Camilla	Camilla is a name of Latin origins, and means “servant of the sacrificed” or “sacrificial priestess”.	65517
Ulla	Ulla is an Old Norse name that stems from the male name Ull, the Norse sun god. It may also derive from the German Ulrika, which means “heritage” or “powerful”.	65361

Top 20 Most Popular Male First Names in the Nordics

Name	Meaning	Nordic People
Lars	Lars is a short form of the Latin Laurentius which means “crowned with laurel wreath” or “man from Laurentum”.	160522
Jan	Jan is a German short form of Johannes, which is of Hebrew origins and means “the lord has mercy”.	149096
Mikael	Mikael, or Michael, is a biblical Hebrew name that means “who is like God”.	147037
Thomas	Thomas comes from the Greek Θωμᾶς (or Thōmas) which stems from the Aramaic word for “twin”.	143862
Erik	Eric is a Nordic name that originates from the Old Norse Airikr which means “lone ruler” or “always powerful”.	132328
Anders	Anders is a Nordic name that stems from the Greek word Andro which means “human”, “man”, or “miracle” depending on the source.	131683
Per	Per, also Pehr and Pär, is the Nordic short form of the Latin/Greek Petrus, meaning “rock”.	131392
Peter	Peter is the English form of the Latin/Greek Petrus, meaning “rock”.	119423
Daniel	Daniel is a Hebrew name that means “God is my judge”.	106155
Christian	Christian, or Kristian, stems from the Latin Christianius that means “the Christian”.	103884
Martin	Martin stems from the Latin Martinus, which means “Martian”.	99722
Hans	Hans is a German short form of Johannes, which is a Hebrew name that means “the lord has mercy”.	98816
Johan	Johan is a short form of Johannes, a Hebrew name meaning “the lord has mercy”. There are three Swedish kings named Johan throughout history.	98641
Fredrik	Fredrik, or Frederik, is a name of German origins meaning “peaceful ruler”. There has been a total of eleven Scandinavian kings with this name, most of them Danish.	95804
Henrik	Henrik, or Henric, stems from the German Heinrich that means “ruler of the home”.	94966
Jonas	Jonas stems from the Greek/Latin Jonah that in turns comes from the biblical Hebrew name Yonah, which means “white dove”.	93088
Mattias	Mattias, or Mathias, is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Mattitjahu that means “god’s gift”.	92645
John	John, or Jon, is the English short form of the Greek Johannes, which stems from a Hebrew name meaning “the lord has mercy”.	89881
Andreas	Andreas is a Greek name that stems from the word Andro which means “human”, “man”, or “miracle” depending on the source.	88276
Karl	Karl or Carl (usually nicknamed “Kalle”) is a Nordic name originating from the Old Germanic Karlaz, which means “free man”. A total of ten Swedish kings, including the current Carl XVI Gustaf, has the name Karl.	86069

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Sources:

https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/befolkning/amnesovergripande-statistik/namnstatistik/

https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/emner/befolkning-og-valg/navne/

https://www.ssb.no/en/befolkning/navn/statistikk/navn

https://www.avoindata.fi/data/fi/dataset/none

https://www.statice.is/statistics/population/births-and-deaths/names/