I've been thinking a lot lately about the names in How To Train Your Dragon, and while at first one might look at them and say, "Yeah, that's clearly not historically accurate" i'ts actually a lot more nuanced. So here is a breakdown of some of the names from HTTYD and related media.
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III: While "Hiccup Horrendous" may not have been an actual given name, as in the name a child's father would bestow at the formal acceptance ceremony, nicknames based on attributes or personal history were common. Most people had them and they were almost as official as the given name. And as far as nicknames go, Hiccup Horrendous isn't that bad. Actual historical names include: Ale-Lover, Flat-Nose, Halfdan the Generous and Stingy With Food (that sounds like an HTTYD book name!), Walking-HrĂłlfr (apparently he was too large to fit on a horse and had to walk everywhere), Foul-Fart, Butter Penis, Shriveled Testicle, Hlif the Castrator of Horses, and one guy who was just called Unwashed. I repeat, these are all real Norse nicknames. So yeah, Hiccup's not that bad. Haddock is more of an High Medieval style surname. I would have preferred Son of Stoick or Stoickson. In conclusion, a historically accuratized version of Hiccupâs name might be something like this: Sigfrid âHiccup Horrendousâ Stoickson (Sigfrid means peaceful victory, I think it fits).Â
Stoick the Vast: Itâs pretty good. One thing, though, that bugs me is that our word stoic comes from Stoicism, which was an ancient Greek school of philosophy. The word wasnât added to the English vocabulary until the rediscovery of the Greek thinkers in the 14th century. And I know that is doesnât really matter because they would all be speaking Norse anyway, willful suspension of disbelief, blah blah blah, I am well aware, it just bugs me okay!!!! Anyway, it seems like perhaps as a child, he was given the nickname Stoick for his personality, and then earned the title âthe Vastâ as he grew.Â
Astrid Hofferson: Astrid is an awesome, one hundred percent historically accurate name! Astrid is an old Scandinavian name that could be compared to Mary or Anne in English: itâs been at the top of the charts for centuries. The royal families of Belgium, Sweden, and Norway all currently have princesses named Astrid. The name means âDivine Beautyâ. As for her surname, we are going to, for the purposes of my sanity, ignore the existence of Finn Hofferson and assume that Astridâs father is named Hoffer. In which case what the bloody heck is âsonâ doing there when she is very much a âdotterâ?! So Astridâs historically accuratized name would be Astrid Hoffersdotter. Itâs interesting that she doesnât have a nickname. My theory is that everyone is too scared of her to give her one.Â
Snotlout Jorgenson: Probably the case is that Spiteloutâs real name is Jorgen.Â
Fishlegs Ingerman: Change Ingerman to Ingersson and weâre good (although Inger is a primarily female name, so, Fishlegs was born to a single mother??)Â
Tuffnut and Ruffnut Thorston: These would become Tuffnut Thorstson and Ruffnut Thorstsdotter.
With the big ones out of the way letâs go through a few more really quickly. Heather: not at all a Norse name, came from Scotland and England in the 19th century; Viggo: actual Norse name that means war; Dagur or Dagr: literally means day in Old Norse, also the god of day, personification of light, hope, and clarity; Drago: just means dragon in a bunch of languages; Grimmel: completely, one hundred percent, totally made up by Dreamworks.Â
One other one I want to send a little more time on: Johann.Â
Johann is interesting to me because itâs historically accurate to the period but itâs not Norse. Itâs a Christian name (itâs a variation of John) and it originates in Old High German, which was spoken in Central Europe from ~750-1050. That fits into my personal option that HTTYD occurs in the 900s. That would mean that Johann is not, in fact, Norse, but quite likely Frankish or perhaps Bavarian. So from part of the Holy Roman Empire. The relationship between the Holy Roman Empire and the Norse was⌠complicated. Skipping over a few centuries of political, religious, and economic turmoil and trying to avoid getting into a more serious discussion of racism and the principle that every people group has both committed atrocities and had atrocities committed against them, Johann may have had a predisposition to not respect Norse people the same way he might people more closely allied with the Empire. That coupled with already being a rather sleazy and financially motivated man with questionable morals may have contributed to his ultimate betrayal.Â
Alternatively we could assume he is Norse, in which case he would have probably been born into a family that had converted to Christianity and wanted to give their child a Christian name. While the Danish and Norwegian kings had converted by the mid to late 900âs, for that to have already trickled down and be a thing for more average people, I think that would have to push the date down a century or two. And I really hate that because it puts New Berk, probably during the later part of Hiccupâs time as chief and certainly Zephyr and Nuffink at the very end of the Viking Age and everything that went with that. Again, I want to avoid really serious discussions here (and I could write a many paged paper on that time), so Iâll sum it up by saying that a small chiefdom like New Berk would have been forced to assimilate into one of many bigger kingdoms, or at least swear allegiance to and probably pay tribute to. If they refused, they would have probably been destroyed, the people enslaved, and even if they did submit peacefully, the ruling family may have still been executed to avoid future problems.Â
So for all those reasons, I choose to believe Johann is Frankish.Â
To close out, the characterâs names in Old Norse:Â
Hiksta Skelfiligr sonr af StĂłiskrâ Hiccup Horrendous son of StoickÂ
StĂłiskr hinn VĂĂ°râ Stoick the Vast (Ă° is pronounced th)
ĂstriĂ°r dĂłttir af HofferâAstrid daughter of Hoffer
Ruffnut dĂłttir af ThorstÂ
If you have any other specific names you want historically accuratized or translated into Old Norse, please let me know!
Disclaimer: My area of expertise (I donât quite have my degree yet, so it might technically still just be my hyperfixation) is the English Renaissance, but history in general is my passion, and I have extensively studied the Medieval era from the Dark Ages to the Early Modern period.Â
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