Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 572

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 572

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/572

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Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked about "Ingrid", "Dana" or "Kallan" as Norse female given names for a persona of undetermined time period. (We'll answer your questions about "Shone" and "Storm" in another letter.) We recommend against "Dana" or "Kallan", but "Ingrid" (maybe with a modified spelling) is a good name.

We didn't find the name "Kallan", and the closest name we did find, "Kalinn", spelled "Kalen" in 1341 (5), is masculine. The sources we consulted (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) contain all known medieval and viking age names of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic. We are therefore quite confident that "Kallan" is not a suitable name for the persona you described.

We found "Dana" only in a mythological work (5, 6). Very few of the names used in Norse mythology are found in historical records; such names do not seem to have been used by real people. Therefore we recommend against using "Dana" in the Society.

We did however find "Ingrid" in various spellings throughout our period in Scandinavia. The oldest, Viking age, form we found of this name was "Ingirídhr" (1, 2, 3, 4).

Here "í" represents an "i" with an accent mark and "dh" the letter "edh", which is pronounced like the "th" in modern English "they". (To form this letter, make an ordinary "d" with the ascender curled over a bit to the left, like a backwards "6". Then make a small horizontal stroke through the curled-over ascender.) This letter was considered a part of the ordinary Latin alphabet in many parts of Europe, including Scandinavia.

Later, during the middle ages, this changed into a "d" and the second "i" was dropped resulting in "Ingrid" (1, 2, 3). This was one of the most common female names in medieval Sweden and probably in the rest of medieval Scandinavia, too (7).

How you write the name depends on when you set your persona. Runes were used instead of Latin letters until about 1100, when Latin letters began to be used. Runes continued in use for another couple of centuries, but they were gradually superseded by the Latin letters, and by the end of our period only Latin letters were in use.

You can find diagrams of the runic alphabet (or "Futhark") on the world wide web at http://www.kuai.se/~griffon/runes/futhark/ and at http://johan.eng.umu.se/pages/ShortTwigFuthark.html and http://johan.eng.umu.se/pages/DanishFuthark.HTML The following comments are based on the first of these pages.

For the viking age (until ca 1100) you want to use "The younger Futhark", and for the middle ages (from ca 1100) "The medieval Futhark". You can use any of the three versions of the younger Futhark at the web pages. You should be aware that the names "The normal (Danish) Futhark", "The short twig (Norwegian-Swedish) Futhark" and "Staveless (Halsinge) runes" are a bit misleading! What the web page says about regional distribution is over-simplified. All three of them were more or less common all over Scandinavia during your time period. And the "short twig" and "staveless" runes were certainly not abnormal as the name "normal Futhark" could indicate.

The writers of the web page also made a typo. The "u" (the second rune) of the normal and Halsinge runes is marked as meaning "i". The web page doesn't make it entirely clear that the younger Futhark was used only in Scandinavia while the Germanic Futhark was used in all the lands were the Germanic tribes lived.

The younger Futhark had only sixteen runes. During the Viking age, several runes had to double for more than one sound of the language. The k-rune doubled for the g-sound, but a "dotted" form of the rune was developed. (This is the same as the g-rune of "The medieval Futhark"). It was used from the late 10th century.

The "dh" in would be written with the rune thorn (the third rune of the Futhark) during the viking age. This rune represents both the voiced "th" (as in English "they") and the unvoiced "th" (in "thin"). During the middle ages it would have been dotted to indicate it represents the voiced sound. When the sound changed into "d", it would have been written with the d-rune (of the medieval Futhark).

If you want to register your name with the College of Arms, you'll have to submit it with latin letters as it doesn't register runes. You'd also need a byname. We'd be happy to help you select one.

In conclusion we recommend that you use "Ingíri{dh}r" with a viking age persona or "Ingrid" with a medieval one. We do not recommend using either "Dana" or "Kallan". The evidence for "Dana" as a period Scandinavian name is very weak, and we found none at all for "Kallan". We hope this will be of assistance!

Talan Gwynek, Arval d'Espas Nord, Iona Linch and myself contributed to this letter.

In service,
Academy of S. Gaberiel,
Lindorm Eriksson

  1. "Sveriges medeltida personnamn: ordbok utgiven av Kungl. Vitterhets-, historie- och antikvitetsakademiens personnamnskommitte". Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm, 1967-. ISBN 99-0135210-X.
  2. "Danmarks Gamle Personnavne", vol. 1 "Fornavne". Eds. Kristianson, Knudsen, Hornby. C.E. Gads forlag, Kobenhavn, 1941-48.
  3. "Rundata" - a database of Scandinavian runic inscriptions from the Univeristy of Uppsala.
  4. Haraldsson, G. B. (pseudonym for Fleck, H.): "The Old Norse Name". Privately published 1977.
  5. Lind, E. H.: "Norsk-Islandska dopnamn och fingerade namn fran medeltiden". Uppsala, Leipzig, 1905-15.
  6. "Eddan. De nordiska guda- och hjaltesangerna.", "Rigstula" verse 48, p. 123. Klassikerforlaget Niloe, Stockholm 1992. ISBN 91-7102-291-0.
  7. The web page "Swedish Feminine Names from ca. 1300" at http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/swedish1300female.html