Geir is a masculine name commonly given in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. It is derived from

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

''geirr'' "spear", a common name element in

Germanic name Germanic given names are traditionally dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements ( stems), by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, King Æþelred's name was derived from ', meaning "noble", and ', meaning "counsel". The i ...

s in general, from

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

'' *gaizaz'' (whence also

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

''gêr'',

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''gâr'', Gothic ''gaisu''). The popularity of the given name peaked in Norway during the 1950s to 1980s, with above 2% of newly born boys named ''Geir'' during the late 1960s to 1970s. As of 2014, the National statistics office of Norway recorded 22,380 men with the given name, or 0.9% of total male population. Statistisk Sentralbyrå, National statistics office of Norway
ssb.no
The Old Norse spelling ''Geirr'' is also rarely given (89 individuals in Norway as of 2014). ''Geir'' is also rarely given in Sweden and Denmark. While ''Geir'' was practically unused as a given name prior to the 1930s (and since the 2000s), ''-geir'' is the second element in a number of given names inherited from Old Norse, the most popularly given being '' Asgeir'' and '' Torgeir''. These are a remnant of a much larger group of names including the ''geirr'' element in Old Norse.nordicnames.de
citing Kristoffer Kruken, Ola Stemshaug, ''Norsk Personnamnleksikon'' (1995), Per Vikstrand, ''Förkristna sakrala personnamn i Skandinavien'', Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica 27 (2009), 5–31, Lena Peterson, ''Nordiskt runnamnslexikon'' (2002). Notable people called Geir include: * Geir Bjørklund (born 1969), Norwegian researcher, medical/health science writer, and editor * Geir Digerud (born 1956), Norwegian cyclist * Geir Gripsrud (born 1948), Norwegian organizational theorist * Geir Haarde (born 1951), Prime Minister of Iceland (2006–2009) * Geir Hafredahl (born 1962), Norwegian politician * Geir Hallgrímsson (1925–1990), Prime Minister of Iceland (1974–1978) * Geir Hasund (born 1971), Norwegian footballer * Geir Helgemo (born 1970), Norwegian contract bridge player * Geir Ivarsøy (1957–2006), Norwegian programmer at Opera Software * Geir Jenssen (born 1962), Norwegian musician best known under the recording name ''Biosphere'' * Geir Hansteen Jörgensen (born 1968), Swedish film director * Geir Isene (born 1966), Norwegian writer * Geir Karlstad (born 1963), Norwegian speed skater, Olympic gold and bronze medalist * Geir Lippestad (born 1964), Norwegian lawyer and politician * Geir Moen (born 1969), Norwegian sprinter * Geir Suursild (born 1994), Estonian rower * Geir Sveinsson (born 1964), Icelandic handball player * Geirr Tveitt (1908–1981), Norwegian composer * Geir Zahl (born 1975), Norwegian musician

References

{{given name Norwegian masculine given names Masculine given names Scandinavian masculine given names