Sveinn
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in Icelandic: boy, lad
A male name· listed as male by the registers that count names by sex
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 9 countries · latest register: Þjóðskrá Íslands, 2026
/sveitn/(recorded in a dictionary) Icelandic · from Wiktionary
Sveinn is a male given name written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in Iceland.
- ISIceland
- USUnited States
- NONorway
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)boy, lad
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
How Sveinn is read
(measured from records)Sveinn is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Icelandic64%
boy, lad
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- English16%
pers. name, Icelandic
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Recorded in:
- ISIceland
- USUnited States
- NONorway
- FRFrance
- DKDenmark
No national register we accept counts this name’s bearers, so the page lists where it is found and publishes no figure.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Sweyn I of Denmarkb. 963DKnot in their usual nameKing of Denmark, England, and Norway
- Sweyn Haakonssonb. 966NOnot in their usual nameearl of the house of Hlaðir and co-ruler of Norway
- Sven Knutssonb. 1016DKnot in their usual nameSon of Cnut the Great, ruled as King of Norway
- Sweyn II of Denmarkb. 1020GBnot in their usual nameKing of Denmark from 1047 to 1076
- Sweyn III of Denmarkb. 1125DKnot in their usual nameKing of Denmark
- Sveinn Pálssonb. 1762ISIcelandic physician and naturalist
- Sveinn Björnssonb. 1881ISIcelandic politician, 1st President of Iceland (1881-1952)
- Sveinn Ingvarssonb. 1914ISIcelandic athletics competitor
- Sveinn Geirssonb. 1971ISIcelandic actor
- Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarssonb. 1976ISIcelandic actor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)14 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 9 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IS Iceland | Hagstofa Íslands — Given-name frequency by population (2005) | 2005 | 1.1K | #24 |
| IS Iceland | Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry) | 2026 | 969 | — |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 90 | #8,265 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 35 | #17,412 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 30 | #14,176 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 30 | #13,671 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 27 | #3,599 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2016 | 21 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2011 | 21 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2017 | 20 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2013 | 20 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2012 | 20 | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Sveinn mean, and where does it come from?
- boy, lad Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Sveinn?
- In Icelandic /sveitn/ (Wiktionary).
- Is Sveinn a male or female name?
- Sveinn is a male name. National registers that list it by sex list it as male: Iceland (Hagstofa Íslands, 2005).
- In which country does Sveinn have the most bearers?
- Sveinn is most frequently recorded in Iceland.
What do you want to know about Sveinn?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/sveinnThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Sveinn”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.