20 Swedish names that have meanings

[@fordhouse8b]

I think an important distinction should be made between names that actually mean something in Swedish, and names that are simply spelled the same or are both spelled the same, as well as being homophonous with words that have some meaning in Swedish. For example, the name Björn is the word björn. The name Tina is a shortened form of Kristina, and is merely a homophone of the word tina, which means thaw, and is a completely separate word with different origins.

[@lpinbrez]

Välkommen tillbaka!

[@AxelQC]

Linda is Spanish for "pretty", which is probably where the name came from. It's also associated with the linden tree.

[@stenwillander5426]

Tack!

[@jasonlove8733]

Tack Martin , my new Swedish name is Torbjörn👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻😄😄😄

[@TheSwedishLad]

YAS!!

[@junbug1029]

In my family we have Anna, Lars, Bror, Richard x2, Esther, Signe x2, Connie, Bengt, William, Jacob, Phillip, Karl, and Helen x2.

[@TheSwedishLad]

Connie, such a classic name, especially when spelled Conny.

[@eye_key]

Happy return 😊

[@michagrzesiak8793]

Hmm. Lina is a word in Polish too. Also traditional Slavic names have meaning as they are made up of two segments that creates meaning. You make a female one by adding "a" at the end. For example my grandma is Mirosława. Mir means peace, Sławić in this instace means to praise. So my grandma is "she who praises the peace" by her name

[@neonsvampen1]

Lina is also arabic for Beautiful or something like that

[@MegaJohn144]

I helped a Swedish guy translate a book from Swedish to English. I decided to let Google translate do the heavy lifting, and then I was take the English and polish it. The only problem: this guy's name was Hans.

[@TheSwedishLad]

Oh no! Well, I guess the capital letter should have helped.

[@roevardotter]

We have linda, lina, tina, hans, karl, frederik in germany too, but here we have different meanings attached to it

[@TheSwedishLad]

Really? What do they mean? There are also words that are the same with Danish and Norwegian with different meaning, even words within Sweden depending on where you live. Fascinating.

[@RichyP85]

Hahhaha! Pitt! You always make me laugh!

[@kl1541]

Swedish girl name Linnéa sounds very pretty to me, I like the way it pronounced and it sounds

[@bertil3887]

many of these swedish names origins as the personal traits those people used to have like Björn was named that way cause he was as strong as a bear and in more modern names its not as symbolic as it was during the viking age, knut was probl due to he was known for being god at making knots and on my fathers side we had an old soldiername which was starkman (surname) which means strong man which was cause that particular soldier actually was a strong man

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Excellent . ! What about invented " aristocratic " family names like : Leijonhjelm , Falkenberg , Uggelklo ( ? ) , Gyllenhammar....etc . A bit too specialised probably but very interesting .... ( I met a Klovedal a few years back - Obviously a Tolkien fan..? Sounds good though ! )

[@TheSwedishLad]

Well, when we dive into last names, then it's an even bigger market. Might do one of those later on.

[@fordhouse8b]

@@TheSwedishLad Yes, so many Swedish last names consist of two elements, which can often be a bit mix and match. Take a name like Lund (grove) which can have any number of elements, such as kvist (branch), qvist (branch with ‘fancier’ spelling), berg (mountain/hill), ström (stream), or added to it to form a different name. As for the “invented” aristocratic names, I believe some of them were originally heraldic images used on coats of arms. My favorite is Natt och Dag (literal meaning, Night and Day), which came about simply from the two contrasting color fields on their coat of arms. Different branches of the family had a variety of last names. The appellation Natt och Dag was usually added in parenthesis after their actual last names, and it was never used as a proper last name until the 18th Century, though the first attested member of the family was mentioned in a document in the 13th Century. Anyway, I just always thought that Natt och Dag / Night and Day is a really cool name. Supposedly one branch of the family which resides in the US uses an abbreviated form of the name, Dagg, and when you add another g to dag, you get the Swedish word for Dew, which is not nearly as cool as Night and Day.

[@theflybytourist8233]

Just out of curiosity, do Swedes have a laugh when they hear of Brad Pitt name on the TV lol 😎😁

[@TheSwedishLad]

Pitt is a word that was used more before the 90's so it's a question of generation.

[@diarmaiddillon1568]

Hold on...are you saying these names mean what be they mean or the m we meaning is incidental?

[@TheSwedishLad]

Probably a mix.

[@PixieMoons]

Thanks, Muffin! 🤣

[@TheSwedishLad]

he he

[@JesseKuiper]

Dutch names: Merel = Blackbid Mus = Sparrow Mees = Tit (the bird) Roos = Rose Wil = Will (noun) or Wants (verb) Ben = Am (as in "I am") Lieve = Lovely Di(c)k = Fat Frank and Mark = names of the currencies in our neighbouring countries before the euro Rijk = Rich

[@josefinelagerstrom2643]

Axel (shoulder) is just too weird really.

[@TheSwedishLad]

"Axel put his hand on her axel."

[@josefinelagerstrom2643]

@@TheSwedishLad 😭

[@yogummler]

Especially since "Achsel" (different spelling but same pronunciation) means armpit in German. And yes, some people mix up the spelling which can generate a laugh 😅

[@shadowpastathetf2kidwithau706]

Jag hatar mitt liv