The Icelandic Sagas contain many strange names not found in modern Scandinavia, like Kali, Brak, An, Kotkel, and Narfi. What happened to these names?

by Vladith

Others that don't even sound very European include Odd, Unn, Bork, Ref, and Hakon. What is the story behind these names?

Searocksandtrees

hi! if you don't get answers here, you might try x-posting this to /r/NordicCountries; there are people there from all of the, well, Nordic countries who could presumably give you modern equivalents in the various languages and comment on how common they are now. I recognize a few of these as still-used names, particularly Haakon, which is prominent in [Norwegian royalty](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haakon_(given_name)), past and present

Cares_Deeply

I'm guessing you read an English translation where some of the names were anglicised, that removes the unvoiced R in many of the names. For example Erik the Red, the voyager who first settled Greenland, his name is actually Eiríkr in the original sources. You are also not using the Icelandic alphabet when writing these names down. The names:

Odd, Unn, Bork, Ref, and Hakon

Are actually Oddr, Unnr, Börkr, Refr and Hákon in the original language. In modern Icelandic (without going into the intricacies of the grammar) the unvoiced r has turned into a voiced r and is thus written: Oddur, Unnur, Börkur, Refur (and Hákon). All names are quite common in modern Iceland.

Kotkel is Kotkell (not common, but similar names Þorkell and Áskell are still common). Kali is Kali (not common, pretty sure it's a nickname meaning cold. Some of the characters in the sagas have nicknames that effectively become their real names). Brak is brák (not capitalised since it's the nickname of Þorgerður, Egill's slave in Egils saga). I'm pretty sure An is an anglicised version of Áni, not a common name these days.

Source: Icelandic