Who's your Viking daddy? or What's in a name?: Part 2.

As with Part One of this fascinating quest, any thing in bold italics is a direct quote from The Viking Answer Lady's site. 

Today we look at the second part of my Viking persona name, the patronymic which tells people who your daddy was. Sometimes they used the matronymic, telling people who your momma was, but that was rare. 

The simplest explanation is, if your father is Thor and you are his daughter Ragnhildr, your name is Ragnhildr Thorsdottir.

The more complicated explanation is that it's more slightly complicated than that. There might be slight changes to the genetive case of the patronymic (I think I'm using those words correctly...don't quote me). 

For example, the name I like best for my father is Skjoldr, "Identical with Old Icelandic skjold, genitive skjaldar, "shield." Skjoldr is the name of the mythical founder of the Danish kings, a son of the god Óðinn. [Go big or go home, baby. My first name of Valdis is totally vindicated.] It appears in use as a human name in Njáls saga." [Okay, fine. Whatever. Ruin my fun.]

Since Skjoldr ends with -dr, the ending -r will change to -ar for the genetive case and...for some reason not explained the 'o' would change to an 'a'. So my partonymic would be Skjaldardottir.

So there's the explanation of that before we start wading through men's names. There are many more recorded men's names than women's, so the lists are quite long. I'm going to start with the 'j' names first. Because 'j'.

Wow. That's it? I was hoping for an
actual crest of boar hair. Lame.
Reconstruction of Valsgarde Helmet

Jorkell - Jorkelsdottir: The first element Jór- is from the OW.Norse noun *jórr(derived from Primitive Scandinavian *eburaR), "wild boar," originally with a sense of "wild boar" but coming to mean "prince" because of the boar-crested helmets such men were said to have worn. The second element -ketill, originally "kettle" but meaning also "helmet" or "chieftain with helmet." Names with the -ketill second element often have a side form using -kell. [So...Prince with a helmet. Or...something.]

Kali - Kaladottir: Occurs in OW.Norse as both a personal name and a by-name, Kali. Derived from the OW.Norse verb kala "to freeze, to be cold." [Hm. Nope.]

Einarr - Einarsdottir: The first element Ei- or Ein- comes from *aina, "one, alone, single." The second element -arr has several possible origins. It may be from *-harjaR, "army leader, general, warrior", or from *-warjaR "one who wards, defender", or from *-gaiRaR"spear." The name comes from *Aina-harjaRand is directly related to einherjar, the word for the warriors in Valholl. [Well. A single warrior. A lone fighter. That works.] One of the most common names in Iceland and Norway from the earliest times. Also found in Denmark as the runic inscriptions æinar, ennar and in Danish Latin sources as Enarus. Anglo-Scandinavian forms include Ainar, Eineri. The name Einarr occurs in many sagas. [I sort of like this one. Despite the fact it's terribly common.]

Leikr - Leiksdottir From OW.Norse leikr "play, weapon-play, battle" or may represent a short form of masculine names inLeik-, -leikr, -lakR. [Heh. There ya go. I sort of like this one.]

Naemr - Naemsdottir From the OW.Norse adjective næmr "quick at learning", "one who is very composed and confident". [I like this one, it's a sort of positive affirmation deal. The 'ae' in this name is supposed to sort of crammed together when written properly and I'm not sure of the pronunciation because I don't understand -heh- the notations on this page.]

Okay. I think that's enough. 

Oh, hey. Have I told you how amazing this song is? I can't stop listening to it. I need her album. That's Elle King's Ex's and Oh's. 

I think I'm torn between Skjaldardottir and Einarsdottir. I like the 'skj' together. I just like the way it looks written out, but it's hard to pronounce. Have you every lived with a last name that's hard to pronounce? I've had two, my maiden name and my first married name.

Is 'Einar' any easier to pronounce? I think it is. And really, my opinion is the only one that counts.

So the options are Valdis Skjaldardottir or Valdis Einarsdottir. I just the Googled the second name. There is a real person named Valdis Einarsdottir on Facebook. I don't want a real modern person's name.

Okay, Valdis Skjaldardottir. Now...how to pronounce it? Hm. More research. Yay!