Anonymous asked:

here's a fun but useless fact: .4% of swedes are named after Loki. like, not the marvel villain, but the god who's supposed to bring about the end of the world. i once asked this mum why she named her daughter after him and she said "oh i just think he's so much fun" and idk how to feel about that i really don't

cephalotodd-deactivated20190310 answered:

OH I JUST THINK HES SO MUCH FUN

[papasmoke]

I Just Think He’s Neat

[lets-put-this-here]

@norsesuggestions

[norsesuggestions]

Well Loki (or Loke rather in swedish) is one of the absolute most returning character in the norse mythology stories told to kids in sweden.

Like, honestly, Loki is in all the popular stories (often with his rival friend Thor). It is not strange people are named after Loki with thay in mind! Or Loke rather, thats the name on swedish.

Although 4% sounds somewhat exagratted as a figure for how many are named Loke… but, norse gods in general are very popular as personal names in sweden. Here are some of the most popular, straight up God names:

Freja

Idun

Tor

Tore

Tora

Idun

Some of the countless compound names, were on part of the name is a norse god, still in use in sweden today

Torbjörn (thor - bear)

Torgun

Torun

Almost all names with “Ing/Inge” in them. Like: Ingrid, Ingegerd, Inger, Ingemar,

Alva (elf)

Astrid (as= asagods/divine frid= beloved)

Aslög (as=divine/asagods lög= promise, law)

Åsa (vague memory but Åsa might be another dialectal variation on as[gods] again. Dont cite me on that though)

Anyway my point is

Many viking age names, which already mentions norse gods, but for a modern day swedish speaker often archaic way, has been alive and well all the way from the iron age.

With that in mind, it is not strange of us to also be named after Loke, which is most likely a new thing as a plain personal name, but follow a 1000 year long tradition of being named after different norse gods, divine being and other mythological heroes.

(benig named just plainly Loke that is, no compounding going on. Also, I believe they in general were not named just “Loke” historically. Idk about that. But I can’t think off anyone)

Ps. There was a huge trend of naming your kids directly after norse gods about a 100 years ago in sweden. You won’t find a peasant name “Freja” in the 18th century sweden.

BUT you could find someone named Ingrid, which in itself is being named “beloved by Freja” in some interprention (it also posdible Inge/Ing is a god/religious word unknown to us today but STILL). They were most likely often not even aware of that they were named after concepts and gods in norse mythology, but they were. Whereas. Loke fits perfectly into this tradition un sweden. It is NOT like naming your kid Sauron or some other name from fantasy novels etc.

Oh also

Loki is a as a god a trickster god, not norse mythologies “satan character”. sometimes Loki is good in norse mythology, sometlmes they are bad. It REALLY depends on the story, which scribe wrote down the story etc.

Ragnarök as described by Snorri is also a VERY debated story among scholars, for how much of it is genuine, and for how much of it is coloured by Snorri christian bias.