← Back to Victorian and Belle Époque
Girl · Old Norse
Gyða
Say it: GHEE-thah
Meaning
Uncertain; often taken as a short form of names beginning Guð- 'god'.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
A Viking-age name carried into England by Gytha, wife of Earl Godwin.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 22 babies given this name since 1952
- At its height in 2018, about 1 in 154,200 girls
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Gyda
| English | Gytha |
|---|---|
| Norwegian | Gyda |
Famous bearers
- Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, mother of King Harold Godwinson
- Gyda, who in the sagas refused Harald Fairhair until he ruled all Norway
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Icelandic sagas and other Old Norse literature
- Anglo-Saxon charters, chronicles and church records
- Royal and noble genealogies
- 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.