| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Word/name | Old Norse |
| Meaning | spear |
| Region of origin | Norway |
Geir is a masculine name commonly given in Norway and Iceland. It is derived from Old Norse geirr "spear", a common name element in Germanic names in general, from Proto-Germanic *gaizaz (whence also Old High German gêr, Old English gâr, Gothic gaisu).
The popularity of the given name peaked in Norway during the 1950s to 1980s, with above 2% of newly born boys named Geir during the late 1960s to 1970s. As of 2014, the National statistics office of Norway recorded 22,380 men with the given name, or 0.9% of total male population. The Old Norse spelling Geirr is also rarely given (89 individuals in Norway as of 2014). Geir is also rarely given in Sweden and Denmark.
While Geir was practically unused as a given name prior to the 1930s (and since the 2000s), -geir is the second element in a number of given names inherited from Old Norse, the most popularly given being Asgeir and Torgeir. These are a remnant of a much larger group of names including the geirr element in Old Norse.
Notable people called Geir include:
- Geir Bjørklund (born 1969), Norwegian researcher, medical/health science writer, and editor
- Geir Digerud (born 1956), Norwegian cyclist
- Geir Gripsrud (born 1948), Norwegian organizational theorist
- Geir Haarde (born 1951), Prime Minister of Iceland (2006–2009)
- Geir Hafredahl (born 1962), Norwegian politician
- Geir Hallgrímsson (1925–1990), Prime Minister of Iceland (1974–1978)
- Geir Hasund (born 1971), Norwegian footballer
- Geir Helgemo (born 1970), Norwegian contract bridge player
- Geir Ivarsøy (1957–2006), Norwegian programmer at Opera Software
- Geir Jenssen (born 1962), Norwegian musician best known under the recording name Biosphere
- Geir Hansteen Jörgensen (born 1968), Swedish film director
- Geir Isene (born 1966), Norwegian writer
- Geir Karlstad (born 1963), Norwegian speed skater, Olympic gold and bronze medalist
- Geir Lippestad (born 1964), Norwegian lawyer and politician
- Geir Moen (born 1969), Norwegian sprinter
- Geir Suursild (born 1994), Estonian rower
- Geir Sveinsson (born 1964), Icelandic handball player
- Geirr Tveitt (1908–1981), Norwegian composer
- Geir Zahl (born 1975), Norwegian musician
References
- Latin gaesum, gaesus, Greek γαῖσον was the term for the lance of the Gauls. The Avestan language has gaêçu "lance bearer" as a likely cognate. The Celtic word is found e.g. in the name of the Gaesatae. Old Irish has gae "spear". Proto-Germanic *gaizaz would derive from proto-Indo-European language *ghaisos, although loan from Celtic has also been considered, in which case the PIE form would be *gaisos. The Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch has *g'haisos (with a palatal velar aspirate), discounting the Avestan form in favour of (tentatively) comparing Sanskrit hḗṣas- "projectile". The form gaois is read in an early Runic inscriptions on the so-called Mos spearhead, dated to the 3rd century, found in Stenkyrka, Gotland. Sven Birger Fredrik Jansson, The runes of Sweden, Bedminster Press, 1962, pp. iii-iv.
- ^ Statistisk Sentralbyrå, National statistics office of Norway, ssb.no.
- Sweden: Det finns 313 män som har förnamnet Geir. Av dessa har 196 namnet Geir som tilltalsnamn. scb.se (as of 2014). Denmark: Mænd med navnet 'Geir' 2014: 79, 2015: 82. dst.dk.
- nordicnames.de, citing Kristoffer Kruken, Ola Stemshaug, Norsk Personnamnleksikon (1995), Per Vikstrand, Förkristna sakrala personnamn i Skandinavien, Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica 27 (2009), 5–31, Lena Peterson, Nordiskt runnamnslexikon (2002).
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