Tormund
A masculine name of Norwegian origin meaning "guardian of Thor".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Tormund. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tormund today is around 6 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tormund births was 2020 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tormund. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Tormund with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Tormund. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
2020
10 babies that year
Average age
6
years old
2020 SSA rank
#7,995
Tracked since 2020
Popularity
Tormund: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Tormund by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Tormund during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Tormund
The name Tormund is believed to have originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia and their descendants during the Viking Age, from around the 8th to the 11th centuries. It is thought to be derived from the Old Norse words "þor" meaning "thunder" and "mundr" meaning "protection" or "guardian."
The earliest known reference to the name Tormund can be found in the Icelandic sagas, which are prose narratives that were written down in the 13th and 14th centuries but are based on earlier oral traditions. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Tormund Treskegg, a character from the Icelandic saga Grettis Saga, which tells the story of the outlaw Grettir the Strong.
In the Middle Ages, the name Tormund was popular among the Norse people who settled in various parts of Europe, including the British Isles, France, and Normandy. One notable historical figure with this name was Tormund of Crowland (c. 1056–1109), an English Benedictine monk and chronicler who wrote the Chronicon Anglicanum, a valuable historical record of events in England from the Norman Conquest until his death.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Tormund Torfæus (1636–1719), a Danish-Norwegian historian and writer who served as the Bishop of Bergen and wrote extensively on the history and culture of Norway. His most famous work is the Historia Rerum Norvegicarum, a comprehensive history of Norway.
In more recent times, the name Tormund has been used in literature and popular culture. For instance, Tormund Giantsbane is a character in the popular fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and its television adaptation Game of Thrones. He is a wildling leader and a prominent member of the Night's Watch.
Other notable individuals named Tormund include Tormund Kvie (1892–1988), a Norwegian author and poet, and Tormund Haugen (1847–1942), a Norwegian-American journalist and politician who served as the lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 1913 to 1915.
People
Tormund + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tormund as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tormund: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tormund?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tormund going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Tormund a common name?
We classify Tormund as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tormund most popular?
The single biggest year for Tormund was 2020, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tormund is about 6 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Tormund in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tormund a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tormund in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Tormund still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tormund in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Tormund can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are named Tormund?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Tormund at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.