Morten

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 22 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Morten is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name7.4K records spelled Morten2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, United States, Sweden, United Kingdom

  Also written Mortén

• German given name6.1K records spelled Morten6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, Norway, Ghana, Austria

  Also written Moerten, MÔrten, Mörten

• Finnish given name1.2K records spelled Morten3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, Norway, Sweden

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Mõrten

• Polish given name1.1K records spelled Morten4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Norway, Czechia, Slovakia

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

  Also written Mortén

42 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Morten is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Norwegian Nynorsk, definite singular of mort

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Morten är en dansk form av → Mårten. Namnet är vanligt i både Norge och Danmark.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In English, from Mortagne (La Manche); first attested Macus de Mauritania, de Moretaine 1086 DB

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In German, männl. Vom., dänische und norwe­ gische Form von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In English, A male given name, of Danish and Norwegian origin.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 81 years between 1945–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Morten Thrane Brünnichb. 1737DKDanish zoologist and mineralogist (1737-1827)
• Morten Müllerb. 1828NONorwegian painter (1828-1911)
• Morten Arnfredb. 1945DKDanish film director
• Morten Olsenb. 1949DKDanish footballer
• Morten P. Meldalb. 1954DKDanish chemist (born 1954)
• Morten Harketb. 1959NONorwegian singer
• Morten Tyldumb. 1967NONorwegian film director
• Morten Østergaardb. 1976DKDanish politician
• Morten Gamst Pedersenb. 1981NONorwegian footballer (born 1981)
• Morten Hjulmandb. 1999DKDanish association football player (born 1999)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 264 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Morten?

We estimate roughly 56 thousand people bear Morten (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Morten have the most bearers?

We estimate about 33 thousand people bear Morten in Denmark, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled morten.

Where is Morten most common?

Morten is densest in Denmark, where the national register counts about 1 in 176 people carrying it.

How common is Morten compared with other names?

In Denmark, Morten is the 14th most common given name of 31,396 given names recorded there.

Is Morten a male or female name?

Morten is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Morten mean?

Recorded meaning: habitational name from Mortagne in La Manche, France.