The Ingrid Bergman baby name formula

Actress Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)
Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman’s first baby, Friedel Pia, was born in Sweden in 1938.

Friedel’s first name was a diminutive of Ingrid’s mother’s name, Frieda. And here’s how she got her middle name:

Newspaper item about Pia

NAMING THE BABY: The name of Ingrid Bergman’s daughter is Pia. The P is the first initial of her father’s name which is Peter, second is from her mother’s, Ingrid, and the A is from her papa’s middle name which is Aaron. Quite an unusual method of child naming. If I had been named that way my first name would be CLM. How about you?

The details aren’t perfect — Pia’s father’s given names were actually Petter and Aron — but the formula is correct. And I do like the question.

What would your name have been if your parents had used the Ingrid Bergman formula?

Even better, if you plug your initials and your partner’s initials into that formula, what’s the result? Is it a usable baby name?

Sources:

  • Durling, E.V. “On the Side.” Toledo Blade 18 May 1946, Peach Section: 1.
  • Spoto, Donald. Notorious: the life of Ingrid Bergman. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2001.

[Latest update: Sept. 2023]

11 thoughts on “The Ingrid Bergman baby name formula

  1. How fun… my name would’ve been Dwe. hehehe

    My kid’s? Jjs. hmmmmm….. like Jayjays? lol

  2. I would have been Bma, my husband Kme. And my son? Kkk. Uhhhhh….no. It is cool that it worked out so nicely for Bergman, though. What a clever way to honor your parents!

  3. My name would have been RTP….hum….but my kids name would have been TAN!
    At least it spells a word! :) Could even be a nickname for Tanner or something!

  4. Mine sound like airport codes. I would be GLH. My kid would be PCB. My hubby would be JMP. My mom would be AEL.

  5. DH doesn’t have a mn, so using his surname 3rd, our kids would get DKL or switching to use my initials 1st and 3rd, KDE. I’d be JMD.

    Cute that it worked for Pia though.

  6. My name would have been JEW (Joseph, Elisa, William). So that wouldn’t have worked.

    Like Karen’s DH, my husband doesn’t have a middle. But if we invert the formula so that my names are 1st & 3rd we get NER. Exactly the three letters Amanda needs for Tanner. :)

  7. I would of been GML, my husband would of been Mek (Mick?.) Our child could be Kjr, which looks sort of Scandinavian…

  8. Interesting! My name would have been Rtg. My husband doesn’t have a middle name either, so if we used the formula for our kids using my middle name instead we would get Cwk. Hubby would have been Bar, which certainly wouldn’t have worked! This formula would be super cute if it worked for everyone! I’m afraid my name renders it pretty unusable :(

  9. I would be OH since my dad doesn’t have a middle name… (Olav and Hilde)
    I guess the logical thing would be to include my paternal grandfather’s initial, so then I would be BOH which is cuter… XD (he was Bodvar)

  10. How funny! I would be SJA. If I could use my mom’s middle instead of first, I’d be SEA, which is kind of a neat middle name idea (if you love the ocean).

    My child would be BED — which would sound suspiciously like we were naming our child after his or her place of conception — no thank you!

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