ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1927 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1927 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 30 Jan 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the name would have been used by a Viking man living between 1300 and 1550. Here is the information we have found. The "Viking" period in Norse cultured ended by 1100. Around 1000, the Norse became more settled, and we see the Old Norse language begin to diverge into separate branches that became modern Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish. We can therefore discuss two options for your name: a Viking living before 1200 or so, or a Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, or Icelandic man living in your desired time period. is a continental Germanic name; the Old Norse cognate of it is . In a document from Iceland dealing with events in the 9th century, we find eleven examples of men named , making it a fine choice for a Viking living in Iceland. [1] In the same source, we have 12 examples of the name . [1] The represents an with a reverse comma hook; this is rendered modernly as an o-umlaut. For a Viking, the correct form of the surname meaning "son of O,rn" is . The change in spelling between and is analagous to the change between and ; the latter spelling is the genitive (possessive) case. For a Norse man living in the Viking era, is an excellent name. You can write this name in several ways. The genuine Norse representation for the Viking period is in runes. Please write again if you would like to know how to write your name in runes. By your period, Old Norse had developed along separate tracks in different parts of the Scandinavian world: West Norse in Iceland, Norway, and the islands north of Scotland; East Norse in Sweden and Denmark. Names developed differently in the two branches. In West Norse, appropriate for an Icelandic or Norwegian man, appears in various spellings between 1300 and 1550 [2,3]: Gunn{ae}r c. 1299 Gvnnarr 1308 Gunnarr 1321, 1385 Gvnn(ae)r 1329 Gunner 1341, 1408, 1485 Ghvnnar 1357-58 Ghunner 1364 Gwnner 1382, 1448, 1485, 1488 Gunar 1386 Gun{ae}r 1394 Gvnner 1410 Guner 1423 Gwnder 1433 Gwnnar 1439 Gunder 1440, 1446 Gunnor 1472 Gwnn{ae}r 1478 Gundar 1479 Gwndher 1483-97 Gvndher 1486 In these names, the {ae} represents the a-e ligature, where the two letters share the same side to create one letter. Of these, was probably the most common, but any of the above spellings would be a fine choice for your name. In Sweden, the name appears in the following forms. [4] These would also be appropriate for a Danish man. Gunnar 1349, 1520 Gunder 1375, 1460, 1461, 1465 Gwnnar 1376, 1381, 1393, 1512 Gwner 1403 Gvnnar 1413, 1462, 1509 Gunner 1420, 1437, 1456, 1520 Gwnner 1441, 1451, 1466, 1503 Gunar 1444, 1506, 1518 Gwnar 1447 Gundor 1461 Gwnnaer 1488, 1490, 1491, 1493, 1518 Gwnder 1495, 1503 Gunnor 1504 For West Norse, the surname meaning "son of " was formed the same as in the Viking period. The standard form of it is , though we find it as 1431 and 1340. [2] In Denmark, the name was fairly rare. However, we do have a few examples of the surname meaning "son of " in your period: {O|}rnns: 1485 {O|}rns: 1476, 1481, 1496 {O|}rnss: 1483, 1491, 1492, 1496 In these names, the <{O|}> represents the Danish slashed , and was an abbreviation for a suffix meaning "son." That suffix might have been spelled out in various ways: [4] sen son sonn s{o|}n so"n sun swn Of these, , , and are not found after the 14th century, and does not appear until the early 16th century. We recommend that you use or . (In the list, represents an o-umlaut.) We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Margaret Makafee, Lindorm Eriksson, Arval Benicoeur, Amant le Marinier, and Juliana de Luna. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 30Jan00 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Viking Names found in the Landna/mabo/k" (WWW: Privately published, 1998). http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/landnamabok.html [2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). s.nn. Gunnarr, O,rn [3] Knudsen Gunnar, Marius Kristiansen, & Rikard Hornby, _Danmarks Gamle Personnavne_, Vol. I: Fornavne (Copenhagen: 1936-48). s.n. Gunnar [4] --, _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_, bd. 1, h. 1(Uppsala: 1967).