Inger

Meaning of Inger

Inger, a feminine given name deeply rooted in Scandinavian onomastics, derives from the Old Norse compound Ingiríðr—uniting the theonym Ing, associated with a pre-Christian fertility deity, and fríðr, meaning “beautiful”—and is uniformly pronounced ING-er (/ˈɪŋər/) in both Norwegian and Swedish. Its appearance in United States Social Security records dates to the late 19th century, after which it underwent a gradual ascendancy through the mid-20th century, reaching its highest recorded frequency in 1966 (118 occurrences, rank 627), before entering a protracted period of diminishment that saw single-digit annual births by the early 1980s and eventual removal from the top 800 after 1986. This statistical trajectory reflects Inger’s enduring association with Nordic heritage and its relative marginalization within the broader Anglo-American naming lexicon, making it a choice of distinctive precision and etymological resonance for those seeking a name of measured elegance and historical specificity.