LE Proper Norse Naming

[Terralventhe]

So far throughout Skyrim, I've been finding myself stopping to sigh and facepalm over one thing and one thing in particular.. the fact that Bethesda seems to have clearly just gone online, Google'd 'Random Norse Name Generator' and copy-pasted the names from therein. Why do I say this? Because anyone who is Scandinavian or even remotely familiar with Scandinavian or Norse names will recognize that half the time in Skyrim, the names are either written wrong, applied to the wrong gender, or simply are laughable. Amongst the ones that stand out particularly for me are the following names:

 

Sigfrid Gauldarson - This one is hilarious because 'Sigfrid' (or Sigfríð rather), is a woman's name. This is pretty much on the same level as Marvel calling Loki's mother, Laufey, 'King Laow-fee'.

Ari - Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Bjartur- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Freir- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Gisli- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Helgi- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Hroki- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Narri- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Tormir - Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Aldis - Is a woman's name, and yet is attached to a man.

Hjorunn - (Should be Jorunn) Is a woman's name, and yet is attached to a man.

Olfrid - Is a woman's name, and yet is attached to a man.

 

Also, the protesting man in Whiterun named 'Heimskr'. I first thought this was meant to be a comedic character because 'Heimskr' directly translates as 'Stupid'.

 

Now, who knows, maybe the people of Skyrim just like naming their women butch names. Maybe the odd parent or two fancied naming their boy something girly. At the very least, it'd explain why Gauldur's son tried to kill his father for giving him a girl's name.

[andiders]

Sigfrid Gauldarson - This one is hilarious because 'Sigfrid' (or Sigfríð rather), is a woman's name. This is pretty much on the same level as Marvel calling Loki's mother, Laufey, 'King Laow-fee'.

Ari - Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Bjartur- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Freir- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Gisli- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Helgi- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Hroki- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Narri- Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Tormir - Is a man's name, and yet is attached to a woman.

Aldis - Is a woman's name, and yet is attached to a man.

Hjorunn - (Should be Jorunn) Is a woman's name, and yet is attached to a man.

Olfrid - Is a woman's name, and yet is attached to a man.

Sigfrid is a women name

Ari isn't even norse

Bjartur would be a male name

Freir is actually a female name

Gisli isn't norse

Helgi would be a female name

Hroki not norse at all. If it was, it would be male name though

Narri would be female

Tormir is male

Aldis would be female, but not really a norse name

Hjorunn (or Jorunn) is a male name

Olfrid is a male name (could say it's the norse name for Alfred)

 

Ooh, And I'm personally is 100% norse. Sweden. So I know. Right on some points though.

[Terralventhe]

I'm Icelandic. The following names are male names: Ari, Bjartur, Gísli, Helgi, Hroki, and Narri for all intents and purposes could be a referance to Nari/Narfi, an Old Norse deity. Gísli would have to be Norse, no less, given the titular character of Gísla saga Súrsonar, an Old Icelandic story from ca. 940-980. Ari is also Old Icelandic, meaning 'Eagle'. The following are female names: Sigfríð, Jórunn and Ólfríð.

 

So yeah, not sure what you're talking about in terms of your post if you were telling me that what I was saying is wrong.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Terralventhe

[scrutio]

Given that Skyrim isn't actually Scandinavia but is a Nord region of Tamriel, I don't think it is unreasonable to have male names on females, or even the other way round. As one of the creators of the game said 'The nord men are big, burly with beards...the nord women are big, butly with beards'. It's not like the women of Skyrim are blonde and leggy like the women of Scandinavia, so I really don't see a big issue with it. It's part of the charm that the women are manly.

 

We do it with English names all the time. Cameron is a man's name, but Cameron Diaz looks reasonably feminine. Ashley is a man's name and there are plenty of girls around called Ashley too. I think it is simply them using some poetic license and playing on how manly the nords of Skyrim are.

[Terralventhe]

Thing is, Scrutio, that is like saying 'This is Tamriel, not Europe, so it's perfectly alright if this Medieval Britain-styled region has men in it that are named Cassandra and women named Gary'. It's not a question of whether it's a name that's unigendered, the names I listed aren't. They're very specifically male and female names.

 

Not to mention I find it highly unlikely that Bethesda was trying to be creative or taking poetic licenses. I find it far more likely that they just didn't bother to check what the genders of the names were. It'd be like someone who doesn't speak English throwing English names around without applying a gender to them.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Terralventhe

[scrutio]

Thing is, Scrutio, that is like saying 'This is Tamriel, not Europe, so it's perfectly alright if this Medieval Britain-styled region has men in it that are named Cassandra and women named Gary'. It's not a question of whether it's a name that's unigendered, the names I listed aren't. They're very specifically male and female names.

 

Not being Scandinavian I wouldn't have noticed, so I don't know quite how masculine the names are, I guess some masculine names are a little more gender neutral or at least have become that way in recent years. As I said we have plenty of English male names which are now used by females and I'd imagine that trend is only going to continue. Gary maybe would be pushing it, but if she was particularly blessed in the facial hair department I don't think it would be totally out of place, although I guess they would spell it with an i, like Gari even though the origin is the same. Plenty of women called Toni for example.

 

As for Skyrim, for me it doesn't take anything away from it, even knowing now that the genders are wrong on some of the characters. Again, it could just be a quirk that they have intentionally added to signal the masculinity of the Nord women.

[darkblayd]

Male and female names get flip flopped all the time due to the 'sound' of them so to speak. There are things that 'sound' feminine or masculine or neutral if you catch my meaning.

[lessthan3]

Sigfrid is a male name, andiders. I think you were thinking of Sigrid.

Jorunn is a feminine name,

Freir is a masculine name, it's just a letter away from Freyr, which even means Lord.

Olfrid is a woman's name, and it has nothing to do with Alfred. It's a combination of Frid meaning beautiful, and Ol which is extreme short for AnulaiƀaR which is a combination of the words Anu and Leif meaning ancestor and heir respectively. And ignoring the tautology, the heir of an ancestor is usually their child. So basically Olfrid means beautiful child.

 

I've never heard of Hroki though.

Or Narri, but it sounds like Narr, which is jester, so it doesn't sound very feminine. Just because of the I at the end doesn't make it feminine, just look at Kári the wind god.

Tormir isn't a real name, but it has the components Tor, and Mir, creating Thor-Yeller. ie. someone who yells at Thor? Definitiely masculine.

Aldis I've never heard of, but as a norse name, it would be the components Al (a type of tree, Alder in english) and Dis, from Disir which are a type of nature spirits. Dis also means Lady, so Aldis would mean Lady of the Alder. And it would definitely be feminine.

And Helgi is the male form of Helga.

 

 

I find it far more likely that they just didn't bother to check what the genders of the names were. It'd be like someone who doesn't speak English throwing English names around without applying a gender to them.

 

The Japanese love doing this. I saw an anime where a character was named Jaccuzi Splot.

You can't just take words and combine them, it doesn't automatically make a name. xD

Edited November 21, 2011 by lessthan3

[Terralventhe]

Hroki is Icelandic (Old Icelandic in terms of being used for a name) - which in turn might as well be Old Norse, since Icelandic was always a combination of multiple Scandinavian languages due to the origins of the settlers, as well as being the least changed language over the last 1000+ years. Means 'arrogance'. Also Sigfrid (or Sigfríð) is actually a female name. I think what you're thinking of is the Germanic name Siegfried, which isn't Norse. Aldis would properly be Aldís, which is another Norse female name. Dís in particular refers to 'maiden'. Edited November 21, 2011 by Terralventhe

[lessthan3]

Yes, Sigfrid is the modern Swedish version of Siegfried.

It never appears in any ancient norse texts. The closest norse one would be either Sigurðr, Sigriðr, or Sigfrødr.