Nordic Baby Names

From Nordic Names - www.nordicnames.de - All rights reserved.

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How to find a baby name

To find a name for a baby is important and can be difficult sometimes. If you want a Nordic name for your child, you will certainly find the right name here:

Name Finder

There are thousands of Nordic names to be found there, and to make it easier to find the right one, you could think about the following:

Sound

  • Do you prefer short names with one or two syllables? Or long names with three, four or more syllables?
  • Do you prefer a certain letter, e.g. names beginning with K- or names containing E's and B's or names ending on a consonant?
  • Do you want the name to match with the surname, with the siblings' names or with your own names?
  • How does the name sound if you combine first name and surname? Some combinations can be difficult to pronounce, e.g. if the first name ends with the same consonant sound the surname starts with.
  • You should keep in mind that a name from a different language can be hard to pronounce in your own language.
  • Keep in mind that your child will grow up. Some names sound really nice for a four-year-old, but maybe not as good for a 50-year-old?

Meaning

  • Is the meaning of a name important to you? You can search for meanings here.
  • Even if the meaning is not very important to you, you should always check the meaning. Maybe you would like to change your mind if you find out that you are about to pick a name meaning 'misshapen head' (Kennedy)...

Origin

  • Is the origin of a name important to you? You will find names here which have got Norse, Finnish, Sami and Greenlandic roots of course, but also a lot of others which are used in the Nordic countries but derive from other languages such as Latin, Hebrew, German, Greek etc. You can search for origin here.

Tradition

  • Do you want a name which has been used in your family before?
  • Keep in mind that names from your grandparents' generation could sound old fashioned nowadays and - if a lot of other people have the same idea - a name from your great grandparents' generation can be extremely popular again.

Popularity

  • Do you want to avoid names which are too popular? Or do you prefer popular names? You can find out about the popularity of names in the Nordic countries here.
  • Keep in mind that chosing a very popular name could lead to your child being one of five children in her/his kindergarten-group and that choosing a very rare name could lead to nobody knowing how to pronounce or spell the name.

Name days

  • Do you want a name which has got a name day? Find out about Nordic name days here.

Spelling

  • Do you want a name which is easy to spell? Or do you prefer creative or exotic spellings?
  • Spelling is a question of taste of course, but in order to avoid spelling mistakes or annoying questions, you should avoid too creative and too exotic spelling variants.
  • If you choose a foreign name, make sure that the spelling is correct, e.g. that an accent is on the correct letter. A seemingly small mistake could lead to a totally different pronunciation.

Final check

You've got some ideas? Good! Let's imagine the following three situations, and check that the name [XXX] is suitable in all of them:

  • For a three-year-old [XXX]
    Could [XXX] come out and play with us?
  • For the 20-year-old [XXX]:
    I love you, [XXX].
  • For the 40-year-old [XXX]:
    Wouldn't [XXX] be the suitable person to lead this challenging project?