Entry № 3885 · Old Norse origin

Gunnhild Gunnhild — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ GOON-hild /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Old Norse
Meaning
"Norse queen (Mother of Kings)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Medieval (Old Norse)

A name that means "norse queen (mother of kings)".

Gunnhild combines the Old Norse gunnr (battle) and hildr (battle) — "battle-battle." Gunnhild Konungamóðir ("Mother of Kings," c. 910-c. 980) was the wife of Eric Bloodaxe and mother of several Norwegian kings — one of the most powerful and controversial women of the Norse sagas, often portrayed as a sorceress.

Featured in Heimskringla and Egil's Saga.

Mother of Kings. Eric Bloodaxe's wife.

The name in its native script.

Gunnhildr
Transliteration
Gunnhildr
Pronunciation
/ ˈɡʊn.hɪld /
Root
Grammatical form

What Gunnhild is built from.

Gunnhild is a compound name. Its parts are gunnr + hild — each an attested element with a recorded meaning of its own.

gunnr
Old Norse
“battle”
hild
Germanic
“battle”

Where Gunnhild stands.

Gunnhild does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Gunnhilds before her.

Real people
Gunnhild Konungamóðir
Norwegian queen, Mother of Kings.
c. 910 – c. 980
In fiction
Gunnhild
Featured in Heimskringla.
Snorri Sturluson, 13th c.

Names connected to Gunnhild.

The number behind Gunnhild.

8

The Visionary

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Gunnhild reduce to 8, The Visionary. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.