Freyja
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Meaning
“Norse goddess of love and beauty; means 'lady'”
The story
Freyja's most famous object is Brísingamen, a magnificent necklace that appears in Old Norse stories beside the goddess who wears it. She is associated with love and fertility, but also with war and the dead, a range much wider than the soft modern label goddess of beauty suggests. Even the evidence asks for care. Much of what survives was written after Scandinavia's conversion to Christianity, so the texts preserve older traditions through later hands. Freyja is the Icelandic and Old Norse spelling of the name usually written Freya in English, and both ultimately carry the title Lady. The necklace gives the story its flash, but the contradictions give it depth: desire and battle, abundance and loss, a powerful goddess reconstructed from poems and prose that arrived late. Modern families may simply love the sound. The mythology is an association, not a personality forecast, and it is richer when its rough edges remain.
How popular is Freyja around the world?
In the United States, 2,336 babies were named Freyja between 2020 and 2025. In Scotland, 19 girls named Freyja were registered in 2024, the 196th most common name among girls that year.
Freyja is on the official records of the United States, Scotland, New Zealand, England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, South Australia, France, Austria, Mexico City, Chile, Argentina and Spain.
United States
1 in 9,300
In the United States, 2,336 babies were named Freyja between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Freyja peaked in the 2020s.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Scotland
1 in 2,400
In Scotland, 19 girls named Freyja were registered in 2024, the 196th most common name among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
New Zealand
1 in 3,800
In New Zealand, 15 girls named Freyja were registered in 2025.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from New Zealand birth registrations, grouped by registration year; any name under 10 in a year is excluded at source. Shares divide by Stats NZ’s count of births registered to mothers living in New Zealand, under 1% below the registry’s own count. Source: Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), baby name popularity over time
England and Wales
1 in 5,300
In England and Wales, 111 girls named Freyja were born in 2025, the 381st most common name among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Ireland
1 in 7,700
In Ireland, 7 girls named Freyja were born in 2025, the 483rd most common name among girls that year.
The count never rose above 7 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Canada
1 in 8,500
In Canada, 43 girls named Freyja were born in 2024, the 670th most common name among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
South Australia
1 in 9,2002017
In South Australia, 2 girls were registered as Freyja in 2017.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
France
1 in 18,000
In France, about 35 girls named Freyja were born in 2025, the 1,000th most common name among girls that year.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in France by year of birth, from INSEE’s fichier des prénoms (1900–2025; Mayotte from 2012); exact spellings count separately (Léo and Leo are different names), any spelling under 3 in a year and sex is withheld at source, every count is rounded to the nearest 5 at source, and nametree keeps the spellings that reached 20 in some year. Shares divide by INSEE’s count of births in France from 1957, and before that by the file’s own total for the year; INSEE says the file is not complete before 1946. Source: Insee, fichier des prénoms (last updated 2026-07-16)
Austria
1 in 19,000
In Austria, 4 girls named Freyja were born in 2025, the 858th most common name among girls that year, spellings that differ only by special characters counted together.
The count never rose above 7 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
Mexico City City
1 in 29,000
In Mexico City, there were 4 registrations of Freyja in 2022.
The count never rose above 8 in a year, too few to chart.
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023 (1 registration through 3 Mar) is excluded as partial. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
Chile
1 in 30,000
In Chile, 6 girls were registered as Freyja in 2021, every accent spelling counted together.
The count never rose above 6 in a year, too few to chart.
First-name registrations with Chile’s civil registry by year of registration, 1920–2021, counted as spelling groups (Sofía, Sofia and Sofìa are one name, shown with its most-registered spelling); the registry withholds nothing, nametree keeps the groups that reached 5 registrations in some year, and shares divide by every registration of the year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (Chile) via the guaguas package, first-name registrations 1920-2021
Argentina
1 in 130,000
In Argentina, 5 newborns were given the name Freyja in 2024.
The count never rose above 8 in a year, too few to chart.
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Spain
1 in 590,000
In Spain, 76 residents are named Freyja, ranked 9,692nd among women, with a mean age of 4.1 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Poland
last on record 2022
Freyja is not on the 2025 record for Poland, where names given fewer than 2 times in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
First names given to children born in Poland by year of birth, 2000–2025, from the PESEL population register (Ministry of Digital Affairs); exact spellings count separately (Łukasz and Lukasz are different names), names given fewer than 5 times in a year were left off the list through 2012 and fewer than 2 times from 2013, and the register also counts children born abroad, so its yearly sums run above Poland’s live births. Shares divide by the register’s own published total for the year, never by births. Source: Ministry of Digital Affairs, PESEL register (dane.gov.pl)
Not on the record in Puerto Rico: that registry withholds small counts, so rare uses may sit below its floor.
Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Freyja
Most people given the name Freyja in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Freyja deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Freyja truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Freyja fits with your family’s names and surname.
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