Freja
Meaning and origin
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name from Icelandic, currently popular. From Icelandic Freyja, from Proto-Germanic *frawjǭ, Fröja or Fröa would be the expected form. Doublet of the second element in hustru.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Freja (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Freja has been fairly steady over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2020. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 51 |
| 1999 | 37 |
| 2000 | 49 |
| 2001 | 51 |
| 2002 | 55 |
| 2003 | 89 |
| 2004 | 118 |
| 2005 | 128 |
| 2006 | 254 |
| 2007 | 297 |
| 2008 | 306 |
| 2009 | 271 |
| 2010 | 332 |
| 2011 | 447 |
| 2012 | 418 |
| 2013 | 464 |
| 2014 | 453 |
| 2015 | 463 |
| 2016 | 462 |
| 2017 | 456 |
| 2018 | 438 |
| 2019 | 428 |
| 2020 | 474 |
| 2021 | 445 |
| 2022 | 472 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls | Men and boys |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 562 | – |
| 2000 | 614 | – |
| 2001 | 661 | – |
| 2002 | 713 | – |
| 2003 | 805 | – |
| 2004 | 925 | – |
| 2005 | 1,055 | – |
| 2006 | 1,309 | – |
| 2007 | 1,605 | – |
| 2008 | 1,931 | – |
| 2009 | 2,203 | – |
| 2010 | 2,530 | – |
| 2011 | 2,973 | – |
| 2012 | 3,399 | – |
| 2013 | 3,852 | – |
| 2014 | 4,316 | – |
| 2015 | 4,785 | – |
| 2016 | 5,249 | – |
| 2017 | 5,714 | – |
| 2018 | 6,160 | – |
| 2019 | 6,589 | 10 |
| 2020 | 7,072 | 13 |
Freja in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Freja.Hi! My name is Freja.
- Freja bor i Göteborg och pluggar till sjuksköterska.Freja lives in Gothenburg and is training to be a nurse.
- Vet du om Freja kommer på festen på lördag?Do you know if Freja is coming to the party on Saturday?
- Frejas mamma är lärare.Freja's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Frejas mamma is Freja's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about Freja
How do you pronounce Freja in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Freja from a native speaker's recording. J is said like the English y.
What does the name Freja mean?
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name from Icelandic, currently popular. From Icelandic Freyja, from Proto-Germanic *frawjǭ, Fröja or Fröa would be the expected form. Doublet of the second element in hustru.
How popular is Freja in Sweden?
472 babies were named Freja in 2022. In 2020, 7,085 people in Sweden had Freja as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been fairly steady lately and peaked in 2020 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.