As I’ve noticed that non-Norwegians may sometimes have problems with how the Norwegian royal names are pronounced – here is an audio file with the Norwegian royal names.
Norwegian Royal Names, The Royal Twist
Haakon, Maud, Olav, Märtha, Harald, Sonja, Haakon Magnus, Mette-Marit, Marius, Ingrid Alexandra, Sverre Magnus, Märtha Louise, Ari, Maud Angelica, Leah Isadora, Emma Tallulah, Ragnhild Alexandra, Astrid Maud Ingeborg
Very interesting! I’ve always wondered how Princess Mette-Marit’s is pronounced. Do you know what it means? I thought I read somewhere that in English it’s similar to Mary Margaret.
Actually both Mette and Marit derive from Margaret, or in some cases, such as Low German, Mette may derive from Mathilde.
Marit means pearl and Mette (depending on where you get the derivation) means either pearl or strong warrior woman.
In Norway, there was a series of 14 books published about a heroine called Mette-Marit, from 1949 and onwards. At the time of Haakon and Mette-Marit’s engagement, there were 23 women named for this heroine, and Mette-Marit was the second-youngest of them.
The books were republished around the engagement.
I did not know that! Very fascinating. Do you know if she was named after the heroine?
Leave a Reply