Ragnar

Ragnar (Old Norse Ragnarr) is a masculine Germanic given name, composed of the Old Norse elements ragin- "counsel" and hari- "army". The Proto-Germanic forms of the compounds are "ragina" (counsel) and "harjaz" or "hariz" (army). The Old High German form is Raginheri, Reginheri, which gave rise to the modern German form Rainer and the French variant Rainier. The Old English form is "Rægenhere" (attested for example in the name of the son of king Rædwald of East-Anglia). The name also existed among the Franks as "Ragnahar" (recorded as Ragnachar in the book "History of the Franks" by Gregory of Tours).

The name is on record since the 9th century, both in Scandinavia and in the Frankish empire; the form Raginari is recorded in a Vandalic (5th or 6th century) graffito in Carthage.^[1]

The name was variously latinized as Raganarius, Reginarius, Ragenarius, Raginerus, Ragnerus, Reginherus. The Scandinavian patronymic form is Ragnarsson.

In the modern period, the name was rarely given before the 1880s. It enjoyed a revival in the late 19th and early 20th century, in connection with national romanticism in Scandinavia. The name is now current as Ragnar in Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and as Ragner in Denmark. A hypocoristic form used in Sweden is Ragge. The name's popularity in Norway peaked during the 1920s and 1930s, during which time it was given to more than 0.7% of newly born boys, but it has declined ever since the late 1930s, falling below the fraction of 0.1% of given names in the 1970s. It also was noted in the movie Ghostbusters. The Norwegian statistics office reports 4,652 Norwegian men with the given name in 2015.^[2]

In Iceland, the name remains popular, recorded at rank 21 (given to 0.76% of newly born boys) as of 2014. The Icelandic statistics office recorded 1,286 Icelandic men (0.2%) with the given name as of November 2005.^[3]

Given name

medieval

• Ragnar Lodbrok, 9th century Viking
• Ragenar, a 9th-century Frankish bishop
• Reginar, Duke of Lorraine (circa 850–915)
• Reginar II, Count of Hainaut (890–932)
• Reginar III, Count of Hainaut (circa 920–973)
• Reginar IV, Count of Mons (circa 950–1013)
• Reginar V, Count of Mons (circa 995–1039)
• Rainier, Margrave of Tuscany (r. 1014–1027)
• Rainier, Marquess of Montferrat (c. 1084-1135)
• Saint Rainier (c. 1117–c. 1160), Pisan saint
• Renier of Montferrat (1162–1183), son-in-law of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos
• Rainier I of Monaco, Lord of Cagnes (1267–1314)
• Rainier II, Lord of Monaco (14th century)

modern

See All pages beginning with "Ragnar".

• Ragnar Hult (1857–1899), Finnish botanist and plant geographer
• Ragnar Östberg (1866–1945), Swedish architect
• Ragnar Sohlman (1870–1948), Swedish chemical engineer and creator of the Nobel Foundation
• Ragnar Olson (1880–1955) was a Swedish horse rider
• Ragnar Musgrave Colvin (1882–1954), British navy officer
• Ragnar Gripe (1883–1942), Swedish sailor
• Ragnar Ekberg (1886–1966), Swedish athlete
• Ragnar Sigvald Skancke (1890–1948), Norwegian politician
• Ragnar Josephson (1891–1966), Swedish art historian and writer.
• Ragnar Frisch (1895–1973), Norwegian economist
• Ragnar Granit (1900–1991), Finland Swedish Nobel laureate
• Einar Ragnar Jónsson, known as Ragnar í Smára' (1904–1984), Icelandic art patron, publisher and art collector.
• Ragnar Fjørtoft (1913–1998), Norwegian meteorologist

Pseudonym

• Ragnar Redbeard, the pseudonymous author of Might Is Right (1890)

Fictional characters

• Ragnar Danneskjöld, character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (1957)
• Ragnar McRyan, character from the role-playing game Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (1990)
• Ragnar Sturlusson, character in the film The Golden Compass (1995)
• Ragnar Blackmane, "Thunderfist", character in the Space Wolf series by William King (1999)
• Ragnar, the main character in the video game Rune (2000)
• Ragnar Ravnson and his son, Ragnar Ragnarson, characters from The Saxon Stories historical novel series by Bernard Cornwell (2004)
• Ragnar Lothbrok, main character in Vikings (TV series) (2013)
• Ragnar Volarus, character in the Red Rising trilogy (2015)

References

1. CIL viii, 22655. Christian Courtois, Les Vandales et l'Afrique (1955), p. 384.
2. Statistisk sentralbyrå (ssb.no)
3. Statistics Iceland.

See also

• Rainer (given name)
• Rainer (surname)
• Rainier (disambiguation)
• Reginar (disambiguation)
• Regnier (disambiguation)
• Reinier (disambiguation)
• Reynier (disambiguation)
• Ragnar Relay Series, series of distance relay races
• Ragnar, the mascot of the Minnesota Vikings American football team