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| Pronunciation | Swedish: [ˈsvɛ̌nː] |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Old Norse |
| Meaning | Young man young warrior |
| Other names | |
| Variant form(s) | Svend, Svein, Sveinn |
| Related names | Svenja (female form) |
Sven is a Scandinavian masculine first name. In Old Norse the meaning was "young man" or "servant" and the original Old Norse spelling was sveinn. [1]
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Variants such as Svend are found in Danish and Norwegian. [1] Another variant, Svein is used only in the Low Countries and German-speaking countries, and is cognate with the English surname Swain . [2]
In medieval Swedish, sven or sven av vapen "sven of arms", is a term for squire. [3] The female equivalent, Svenja, though seemingly Dutch and Scandinavian, is not common anywhere outside of German-speaking countries. Sven can also be spelled with a "w" - Swen - but is pronounced as Sven. [4]
The Icelandic version is Sveinn (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈsveitn̥] ); the Faroese version is Sveinur (Faroese pronunciation: [ˈsvaiːnʊɹ] ).
