By conquering her fear and learning to control her artful magic, Elsa touched millions of hearts. Her journey took her far beyond Arendelle, into the real world, as thousands of parents named their babies Elsa.
Three years after its 2013 release, Frozen keeps influencing baby name charts. So let’s find out a little bit more about Snow Queen’s real name – Elsa.
What’s the Origin of Frozen Names?
The simple answer is Northern Europe. The true fan’s answer awaits below!
Frozen was inspired by the Danish story Snedronningen (The Snow Queen), so it’s no wonder Disney used Nordic names for its characters.
Elsa, Olaf, Sven, Hans and Anna are all names used in Northern Europe, especially in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Olaf and Sven have their roots in the Old Norse language and each has its own name variants, so the writers had quite a few options to choose from.
Olaf
Sven, the loyal “reindeer with the heart of a Labrador” had a chance at the Norwegian name Svein or its Danish variant Svend. Whatever the name, I’m sure the spirited snowman and the expressive reindeer would’ve brought the same joy.
Princess Anna got her name straight from the Bible and, while her name means grace, courage and optimism seem to define her better.
She is not the only one with a religious name – Elsa and Hans are actually diminutives of Biblical names.
Hans is the short form of Johannes, which is a form of John. Here the writers missed the opportunity to pick a pretty interesting name: Joop. This is a pet form for Johannes used in the Netherlands. Well yes, the Netherlands is not a Nordic Country, but still, this name deserves a part, doesn’t it?
The Birth of Elsa
Elsa is a short form for the Biblical name Elisabeth and for some of its variants: Elisabet, Elisabetta, Elizabeth.
Like other pet names of Elisabeth, Elsa became a name on its own.
The first records mentioning the name Elsa were produced in Sweden, in the 15th century. Its road towards popularity was slow. Elsa became a generally used name only in the 19th century under the influence of the German naming fashion. Elsa Einstein, the wife of Albert Einstein was born around this time.
The Rise of Elsa
The 2013 Frozen release pulled Elsa out of anonymity generating impressive changes in baby name charts.
In the US, the number of babies named Elsa more than doubled in 2014 compared to 2013.
In Germany, two years after the movie release, Elsa had jumped 180 positions being ten steps away from TOP 100 baby names.
In Sweden and the Faroe Islands, Elsa was in TOP 10 baby names even before the movie was released. With a small push from Disney’s blockbuster, it became the most popular baby name in Sweden in 2014 and it kept its place in 2015.
Elsa’s Sisters
Remember that Elsa is a short form of Elisabeth, which has many pet names:
If you love the name Elsa, but don’t like following trends, you can choose the far less popular Danish variant, Else … or just let yourself be inspired by the above variants and create a new one.
Photo Sources:
- Original image of nordic girl: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/…c3b5.jpg
This is one of the different category…I had never heard of it before. The frozen origin names are really wonderful. I will definately add these names in my list. I have seen names in more than 100 origins and in different categories on Babynology when I was searching a Russian name for my baby. Thanks for sharing this fantastic information.