Einar

Boy · Old Norse

Einar

Say it: AY-nar

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From Old Norse einn 'one, alone' and herr 'army, warrior'.

Likelythe main view, with some doubt.

Used in the sagas and popular across Scandinavia in the 20th century.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

05010018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1909per million babies of that sex
  • 1,384 babies given this name since 1893
  • At its height in 1915, about 1 in 14,100 boys
  • 19 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age700 to 1100
  2. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  3. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  4. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

NorwegianSwedishDanishIcelandicOld Norse

The family of the name

Old NorseEinarr
DanishEjnar

Famous bearers

  • Einar Þambarskelfir, Norwegian chieftain and archer
  • Einar Jónsson, Icelandic sculptor

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • The Icelandic sagas and other Old Norse literature
  • National birth statistics of European countries source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.