Rune

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 13 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◐

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

• English given name9.6K records spelled Rune5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, United States, Netherlands, Australia

  Languages: English, Western Frisian

  Also written Runé, Rüne

• a separate given name5.1K records spelled Rune2 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Rùne

• French given name1.0K records spelled Rune4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Norway, Spain, United States

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Runé, Rüne

• a separate given name585 records spelled Rune3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Sweden, United States, India

  Also written Runé, Rûne

44 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●

Rune 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 Swedish, Rune är ett nordiskt namn, ursprungligen en smekform till mansnamn på Run-, t.ex. Runfast, av germanskt *rūnō i den ursprungliga betydelsen ’hemlighet, hemlig kunskap’. En känd namnbärare är Rune Andréasson (1925–99), skapare av den tecknade serien Bamse. I den rikssvenska almanackan 24 november och i den finlandssvenska 28 februari.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, from 'secret magical script'; compare raunen

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In English, Teutonic; famous, bright fame

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• Scandinavian: from the rare Old Norse male personal name Rúni , a short form of various male compound names containing the element rún secret lore, as, for example, Rúnólfr . Its revival in the late 19th century is probably due to the influence of the more frequent female name RUNA . It has become very popular in the 20th century.

  as a word

• In German, rune (letter, or character, belonging to the written language of various ancient Germanic peoples)

  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) — 74 years between 1945–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Rune Carlssonb. 1909SESwedish footballer (1909-1943)
• Rune Waldekranzb. 1911SESwedish film producer (1911–2003)
• Rune Andréassonb. 1925SESwedish cartoonist (1925–1999)
• Rune Gustafssonb. 1933SESwedish musician (1933–2012)
• Rune Johan Anderssonb. 1945NONorwegian illustrator and children's writer
• Rune Bratsethb. 1961NONorwegian association football player
• Rune Pedersenb. 1963NONorwegian football referee (1963-)
• Rune Temteb. 1965NONorwegian actor
• Kölschb. 1977DKnot in their usual nameDanish record producer and DJ from Copenhagen
• Rune Jarsteinb. 1984NONorwegian association football player

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 · 359 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Rune?

We estimate roughly 50 thousand people bear Rune (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Rune have the most bearers?

We estimate about 24 thousand people bear Rune in Sweden, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled rune.

Where is Rune most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Rune is densest in Norway — about 1 in 299 people — even though Sweden holds more of our records for it.

How common is Rune compared with other names?

In Sweden, Rune is the 279th most common given name of 36,824 given names recorded there.

Is Rune a male or female name?

Rune 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 Rune mean?

Recorded meaning: rune (a letter of runic alphabet)