Baby Name: Harpa

Last year, the island nation of Iceland welcomed over 4,200 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emilía and Birnir.

Below are Iceland’s top 50+ girl names and top 50+ boy names of 2023. (Please note that I created these two gendered sets of rankings from the single non-gendered set of rankings that Iceland released.)

Girl names

1. Emilía, 23 baby girls
2. Sara, 22
3. Aþena, 21 (3-way tie)
4. Embla, 21 (3-way tie)
5. Sóley, 21 (3-way tie)
6. Emma, 20
7. Katla, 19
8. Eva, 18 (4-way tie)
9. Lilja, 18 (4-way tie)
10. Una, 18 (4-way tie)
11. Viktoría, 18 (4-way tie)
12. Anna, 16 (3-way tie)
13. Bríet, 16 (3-way tie)
14. Hekla, 16 (3-way tie) – inspired by Hekla, the name of one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes.
15. Matthildur, 15 (tie)
16. Salka, 15 (tie)
17. Birta, 14 (3-way tie)
18. Hafdís, 14 (3-way tie)
19. Katrín, 14 (3-way tie)
20. Andrea, 13 (3-way tie)
21. Freyja, 13 (3-way tie)
22. Natalía, 13 (3-way tie)
23. Íris, 12 (4-way tie)
24. Iðunn, 12 (4-way tie)
25. Kristín, 12 (4-way tie)
26. Móeiður, 12 (4-way tie)
27. Ástrós, 11 (5-way tie)
28. Fanney, 11 (5-way tie) – modern coinage created from elements meaning “snowdrift” and “island.”
29. Hrafntinna, 11 (5-way tie)
30. Saga, 11 (5-way tie)
31. Ylfa, 11 (5-way tie)
32. Elín, 10 (5-way tie)
33. Heiðdís, 10 (5-way tie)
34. Hildur, 10 (5-way tie)
35. Júlía, 10 (5-way tie)
36. Laufey, 10 (5-way tie)
37. Amelía, 9 (12-way tie)
38. Aría, 9 (12-way tie)
39. Dagbjört, 9 (12-way tie)
40. Glódís, 9 (12-way tie) – modern coinage created from elements meaning “to shine” and “goddess.”
41. Helena, 9 (12-way tie)
42. Ísabella, 9 (12-way tie)
43. Karítas, 9 (12-way tie)
44. Klara, 9 (12-way tie)
45. Máney, 9 (12-way tie)
46. María, 9 (12-way tie)
47. Sigrún, 9 (12-way tie)
48. Sóldís, 9 (12-way tie)
49. Alexandra, 8 (9-way tie)
50. Edda, 8 (9-way tie)
51. Eldey, 8 (9-way tie)
52. Harpa, 8 (9-way tie)
53. Írena, 8 (9-way tie)
54. Margrét, 8 (9-way tie)
55. Rakel, 8 (9-way tie)
56. Ronja, 8 (9-way tie)
57. Þórdís, 8 (9-way tie)

Boy names

1. Birnir, 30 baby boys
2. Emil, 28
3. Elmar, 25 (tie)
4. Jón, 25 (tie)
5. Óliver 24
6. Aron, 23
7. Viktor, 22
8. Jökull, 21
9. Alexander, 20
10. Atlas, 19
11. Gunnar, 18
12. Baldur, 17 (tie)
13. Mikael, 17 (tie)
14. Breki, 16 (3-way tie) – derived from an Old Norse word meaning “breaker.”
15. Styrmir, 16 (3-way tie)
16. Theodór, 16 (3-way tie)
17. Arnar, 15 (3-way tie)
18. Kári, 15 (3-way tie)
19. Óðinn, 15 (3-way tie)
20. Baltasar, 14 (3-way tie)
21. Elías, 14 (3-way tie)
22. Huginn, 14 (3-way tie)
23. Daníel, 13 (4-way tie)
24. Hilmir, 13 (4-way tie)
25. Ísak, 13 (4-way tie)
26. Úlfur, 13 (4-way tie)
27. Gabríel, 12 (4-way tie)
28. Guðmundur, 12 (4-way tie)
29. Ólafur, 12 (4-way tie)
30. Tómas, 12 (4-way tie)
31. Ari, 11 (11-way tie)
32. Benedikt, 11 (11-way tie)
33. Benjamín, 11 (11-way tie)
34. Björn, 11 (11-way tie)
35. Brynjar, 11 (11-way tie)
36. Dagur, 11 (11-way tie)
37. Erik, 11 (11-way tie)
38. Kristján, 11 (11-way tie)
39. Kristófer, 11 (11-way tie)
40. Matthías, 11 (11-way tie)
41. Sigurður, 11 (11-way tie)
42. Anton, 10 (7-way tie)
43. Atli, 10 (7-way tie)
44. Ágúst, 10 (7-way tie)
45. Hinrik, 10 (7-way tie)
46. Jóhann, 10 (7-way tie)
47. Magnús, 10 (7-way tie)
48. Stefán, 10 (7-way tie)
49. Adam, 9 (8-way tie)
50. Bergur, 9 (8-way tie)
51. Birkir, 9 (8-way tie)
52. Leó, 9 (8-way tie)
53. Máni, 9 (8-way tie)
54. Óskar, 9 (8-way tie)
55. Stormur, 9 (8-way tie)
56. Tristan, 9 (8-way tie)

Interesting names from outside the top 50 include…

• Rökkvi (masculine name, given to 8 babies), which may mean “twilight.”
• Kolbrá (fem., 5 babies), a modern coinage created from elements meaning “black, dark” and “eyelash.”
• Hrafnkatla (fem., 3 babies), the feminine form of Hrafnkell, which is made up of elements meaning “raven” and “cauldron.”
• Tindur (masc., 3 babies), derived from an Old Norse word meaning “spike,” “tooth,” “mountain peak.”
• Þráinn (masc., 3 babies), based on an Old Norse word meaning “obstinacy.”
• Krummi (masc., 2 babies), which could mean either “bent, crooked” or “raven.”

And what about the single-use names?

Over 980 names were bestowed just once in Iceland last year. Here’s a sampling of Iceland’s unique baby names of 2023:

Apolonia, Broteva, Dofri, Esjar, Friðþjófur, Gígja, Gíslason, Hlín, Indriði, Jóvin, Kjalar, Myrkár, Náttey, Ösp, Possible, Röskva, Spói, Torfi, Undína, Völundur, Yndís, Zebbý

Here are simplified definitions for a few of the above…

• Friðþjófur (masc.), made up of elements meaning “peace” and “thief”
  • A name that means “peace thief” seems very appropriate for a newborn baby. :)
• Gígja (fem.), meaning “fiddle.”
• Ösp (fem.), meaning “aspen tree.”
• Röskva (fem.), meaning “vigorous,” “brave.”
• Spói (masc.), from the Icelandic word spói, which refers to the whimbrel (a type of bird).

Gíslason — a surname that was likely used as a masculine forename (given that -son ending) — may have been inspired by Icelandic soccer player Rúrik Gíslason.

I didn’t post about Iceland’s top baby names of 2022, but here are Iceland’s 2021 rankings.

Sources: Vinsælustu nöfnin 2023 – Þjóðskrá, Births – Statistics Iceland, Nordic Names, Wiktionary

Image: Adapted from Flag of Iceland (public domain)