SWEA International

Outreach Activity: Viking-style Names

Children can have fun inventing their own Viking names. The general formula is to choose a base name (either their own first name or a Scandinavian Choice) and add a characteristic that either describes some aspect of their appearance or who they are.

This page includes links to PDF documents that duplicate the sample Viking names and ideas for characteristics given below. We suggest you either print out either this page or the PDF we provide with the formatted sample names and characteristics. The PDF is produced using an old-style font called Herculanum that looks somewhat like Runes.

PDF handouts:

PDF with sample names

PDF of appearance characteristics

PDF of personality characteristics

Sample Viking-style names:

Names based on appearance	Names based on personality
Harald Fairhair Ivar the Boneless Thorolf Lousebeard Harold Bluetooth Kon Smelly-Feet Gorm the Old Dan the Magnificant Ragnar Hairy-Breches Eric the Red	Aud the Deep-Minded Leif the Lucky Sigurth Serpent-in-the-Eye Peace-Frothi Halfdan the Generous and Stingy of Food Bad-Luck Olof Gold-hareold Olaf the Big Mouth Eirik Bloodyaxe Ragnhjild the Powerful Sigrith the Haughty Gunnhild Kindsmother Ellen Trueblood

Example characteristics:

Characteristics based on appearance	Characteristics based on personality
Fairhair Boneless Lousebeard Bluetooth Old Young Magnificent Paunchbelly Black White Red Little Squinter Goldenbeard Forkbeard Deaf Slender Blind Greybeard Greycloak Barefoot Hairy-Breeches	Silent Lucky Peaceful Generous Stingy Unlucky Big-mouth Powerful Haughty Proud Deep-Minded Good Highly-honored Great Learned Strong Wise Bold Brave Victorious True Believer Wealthy Ship-builder Lawspeaker Widely-Traveled