Given name
Runar
“secret; rune”
Runar is a masculine given name from Proto-Germanic. It is used in Norwegian Nynorsk.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Runar goes back to a word meaning “secret; rune.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Proto-Germanic *harjaz, built from Norwegian Nynorsk run + -ar.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1917. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Runar through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 7
- 7 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1917
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 7 in 1917. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Runar’s family of names
Inner ring: spellings · outer: across languages.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Runar
- Runar BergNorwegian footballerborn 1970
- Runar EspejordNorwegian association football playerborn 1996
- Runar NorheimNorwegian footballerborn 2005
- Runar Haugeassociation football playerborn 2001
- Runar SøgaardNorwegian life coachborn 1967
- Runar NormannNorwegian association football playerborn 1978
- Runar SchildtFinland Swedish writer (1888-1925)
- Runar SjåstadNorwegian politicianborn 1968
- Runar KarlssonÅland politicianborn 1953
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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