Gun
Meaning and origin
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name from Old Norse. From Old Norse Gunnr, short form of female compound names with the element gunnr (“battle”). Name of a Valkyrie in Norse mythology. First recorded as a given name in Sweden in 1891.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Gun (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Few babies have been given the name since 1998; it belongs mostly to older generations. 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 | – |
| 1999 | – |
| 2000 | – |
| 2001 | – |
| 2002 | – |
| 2003 | – |
| 2004 | – |
| 2005 | – |
| 2006 | – |
| 2007 | – |
| 2008 | – |
| 2009 | – |
| 2010 | – |
| 2011 | – |
| 2012 | – |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2014 | – |
| 2015 | – |
| 2016 | – |
| 2017 | – |
| 2018 | – |
| 2019 | – |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2021 | 4 |
| 2022 | – |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 24,339 |
| 2000 | 24,043 |
| 2001 | 23,758 |
| 2002 | 23,443 |
| 2003 | 23,127 |
| 2004 | 22,800 |
| 2005 | 22,507 |
| 2006 | 22,190 |
| 2007 | 21,917 |
| 2008 | 21,626 |
| 2009 | 21,333 |
| 2010 | 20,950 |
| 2011 | 20,585 |
| 2012 | 20,189 |
| 2013 | 19,832 |
| 2014 | 19,406 |
| 2015 | 18,976 |
| 2016 | 18,501 |
| 2017 | 18,015 |
| 2018 | 17,473 |
| 2019 | 16,959 |
| 2020 | 16,389 |
Gun in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Gun.Hi! My name is Gun.
- Gun bor i Göteborg och pluggar till sjuksköterska.Gun lives in Gothenburg and is training to be a nurse.
- Gun har bott i Uppsala i tre år.Gun has lived in Uppsala for three years.
- Guns mamma är lärare.Gun's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Guns mamma is Gun's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about Gun
How do you pronounce Gun in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Gun from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name Gun mean?
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name from Old Norse. From Old Norse Gunnr, short form of female compound names with the element gunnr (“battle”). Name of a Valkyrie in Norse mythology. First recorded as a given name in Sweden in 1891.
How popular is Gun in Sweden?
Fewer than two babies of either sex were named Gun in 2022. In 2020, 16,389 people in Sweden had Gun as the first name they go by.
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.