Use in the Nordic countries
Spelling and prevalence
Across the Nordic countries, the most commonly occurring spelling of the name is Leif, however, there are some well-established regional variants:
Norway – Leiv[2]
Denmark – Lejf[3]
Iceland – Leifur [ˈleiːvʏr̥][4]
Faroe Islands – Leivur [ˈlaɪvʊɹ][5]
In Norway, about 17,000 men have Leif as their first (or only) name.[6] In Sweden, as of 2021, 62,147 men have the name Leif as a first name.[7] As of 2018, about 15,000 Danish men have Leif as their first name.[8] In Finland, as of 2012, 4,628 men have Leif as a first name.[9] In the U.S., as of 2015, 6,415 men have Leif as a first name.
Pronunciation
Because the Scandinavian languages differ in their pronunciation of the digraphs ⟨ei⟩ and ⟨ej⟩, the name Leif may be either pronounced as an approximate rhyme for "safe", or approximately like the English word "life", In Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Western Norway, it is an approximate rhyme with "safe". In Denmark, much of Norway, and the southern and western regions of the Faroe Islands, the name is pronounced more like "life", while the only exception to this pattern is in the northern and eastern regions of the Faroe Islands where it is an approximate rhyme with the English word "coif". In no Scandinavian region is the name pronounced like the a commonly heard English language pronunciation, "leaf", as that would be a homophone of the unrelated female name Liv/Lif.
