I have for over 10 years collected every ON personal name that I
could find, including nicknames. My sources have been ON runic
inscriptions, mideaval letters and other such documents, kings sagas,
Landnamabok and the sagas of Icelanders, sagas of olden tides
(fornaldarsogur) , foreign sources of ON names, Proto-Norse runic
inscriptions, oral tradition in a some cases. My yet unpublished book
is in 3 sections: 1) ON totemic names 2) ON compound names 3) ON
nicknames. As many of the nicknames can also occur as personal names,
the book goes full-circle. The middle section on compound names is
arranged after the second element, not the first, as this was
originally the main element. What I have discovered is that the ON
naming tradition tells us more about ON folk, culture, and religion
that any other source. That might sound strange, given all the
wonderful and important information in other sources, but I w ill
assert for the record that it is true. Personal names as a whole give
us a chance to see ON folk with eyes unbiased by any writers views,
and unlimited by any given topic. As personal names were highly
important and reflected the ON culture's values, ideals, beliefs, and
way of seeing the world, they tell their own story in a silent way,
where each man can draw his own conclusions. The ON naming tradition
was totally and irreparably devastated by the introduction of the
Christian faith. That some ON names survive is no argument to the
contrary, as the context of the old naming tradition has been lost.
Some names, especially male names, did survive, often by force of
tradition or the number bearers for a given name within a given
Christian area, but also later through revival during the age of
national romanticism, in which many old name that had died out were
reintroduced, as well as new, analogous names formed after the old
compound model. But my work cuts off around the reformation, and
ignores all development after that point except in the case of a few
individual names that are thought to be ON names, but old survive in
oral tradition due to chance. Time provided, I want to share some of
my work with Norse Course members, and simply write some posts on the
topic for interested members to read. Feel free to ask me questions
if ye w ill , and w ill try to answer them when I have the time. Bare in
mind that I can be called to sea for weeks, even months, on end, and
without online access. I am not going to go into compound names too
much, or nicknames, unless the topic sparks discourse on references
are needed, or specific questions asked. Instead, I want to post on
short, non-compound names, as they reflect an old, totemic tradition
where folk were simply called after tools, clothes, weapons, things
in natures, qualities, physical characteristics, etc.. I hope that
readers w ill enjoy trying to see the world as the heathen norsemen
once saw it, and imagine what it would have been like to live in a
society were the names discussed were the only ones in use. My hope
is that this can give the reader some idea of how utterly different
was this olden folk's way of seeing the world, and how utterly
different were their values and beliefs. Short personal names from
Old English, Old High German, etc., tell us that the totemic naming
tradition is as least as old as, and propably older than, the
coumpound one, which likely evolved out of the totemic one, although
we have no real way of knowing, as it also already existed in common
Germanic times, if we are to believe our sources. Also, it is hard to
understand why someone would be called Thorbiorn if one does not
already understand why one would be called Biorn. Hence, we should
probably try to understand that first. I call them totemic names
after the famous native American use of personal names like Red
Cloud, Sitting Bull, Blue Sky, etc., which reminds one of the ON
tradition, as one sought to confer the qualities of the named things
upon a person through a personal name. I w ill not go into native
American names, as there were, and are, hundreds, if not thousands,
of different tribes, and I am no expert on any of them. Enough said,
I w ill post some names. I hope that ye enjoy the topic, and that ye
see its relevance for Norse Course.

-Konrad