Gun or Gunn is an old name formed from ''gunnr'' (battle) and is cognate with the Old English word "gúð". Gunnr is one of the

valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997:36) ...

s. The equivalent male name is

Gunnar Gunnar is a male first name of Nordic origin (''Gunnarr'' in Old Norse). The name Gunnar means fighter, soldier, and attacker, but mostly is referred to by the Viking saying which means Brave and Bold warrior (''gunnr'' "war" and ''arr'' "warrior ...

. The earliest attestation of the name is on the

Rök runestone The Rök runestone ( sv, Rökstenen; Ög 136) is one of the most famous runestones, featuring the longest known runic inscription in stone. It can now be seen beside the church in Rök, Ödeshög Municipality, Östergötland, Sweden. It is cons ...

where it occurs as part of a kenning for

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

: ''I say this the twelfth, where the horse of Gunnr sees fodder on the battlefield, where twenty kings lie...'' Gun is the 56th most common female name in Sweden as of December 31, 2008, when 34,655 living people were named Gun in Sweden.Name statistics
(at Statistics Sweden)

Famous Guns

Atthaphan Phunsawat Atthaphan Phunsawat ( th, อรรถพันธ์ พูลสวัสดิ์; born 4 October 1993), also known as Gun ( th, กัน), is a Thai actor and host. He is best known for his role as Punn in ''The Gifted (Thai TV series), Th ...

, also known as Gun Atthaphan, Thai acto

* Gun Adler, actres

* Gun Nathalie Björn, Swedish footballer * Gun Andersson, actres

* Gun Arvidsson, actres

*

Gun Carlson Gun Carlson (born 17 August 1939) is a politician in Åland, an autonomous and unilingually Swedish territory of Finland. * Member of the Lagting (Parliament of Åland The Lagting, or ''Lagtinget'', is the parliament of Åland, an autonomous, de ...

, politician * Gun Fors, actres

* Gun Hellberg, actres

*

Gun Hellsvik Gun Birgitta Hellsvik (née Blomgren; 27 September 1942 – 14 November 2016) was a Swedish politician for the Moderate Party, who served as Minister for Justice from 1991-1994. A lawyer by training, she worked as a civil law lecturer at Lun ...

, Swedish minister for Justice * Gun Holmquist, actres

* Gun Holmqvist, actres

* Gun Jönsson, actres

*

Gun Kessle A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, pr ...

, artist, married to Jan Myrdal * Gun Korawit Boonsri, Thai acto

* Gun Lund, dancer and choreographer *

Gun Robertson A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, pr ...

, actres

*

Gun Skoogberg A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, ...

, ballerina * Gun Chartree Sithananun, Thai guitarist

References

General sources

English etymology of Norse names, referencing other names with ''gunnr'' rootSwedish-language source
{{given name Swedish feminine given names Feminine given names