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Names That Mean Warrior

Names meaning warrior, battle, army or defender. In early medieval Europe these were not aspirational so much as descriptive of an expected life, which is why they outnumber every gentler theme in the Germanic and Norse lists.

Every name here has a researched page whose stated meaning carries this sense.

Rankings for

101 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Alessio Alessio is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender," the Italian form of Alexis.
Boy Italian #869 in US
Tilly Tilly is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "mighty in battle."
Girl Germanic #886 in US
Marcella Marcella means dedicated to Mars, and our data marks it reviving — 948th in the United States, 1386th in England and Wales, 1507th in Canada and 6569th in France, from a peak more than a century old.
Girl Latin #948 in US
Alec Alec means defender of men, and France ranks it 536th — above the United States at 979th, which is not where a Scottish short form of a Greek name would be expected to lead.
Boy Scottish #979 in US
Harold Harold is a boy's name from Norse and Old English elements meaning army ruler, and it belongs to the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, killed at Hastings in 1066.
Boy Germanic #992 in US
Mattie Mattie serves two entirely unrelated names — Martha, which is Aramaic for a lady, and Matilda, which is Germanic for might in battle.
Girl English #1,006 in US
Alfonso Alfonso completes a set on this site — Alphonse in French, Alonzo in Spanish and Italian, and Alfonso the Iberian dynastic form, all descending from one Visigothic compound.
Boy Spanish #1,012 in US
Alexa Alexa did not simply collapse when Amazon launched the Echo — it rose first.
Girl Greek #1,030 in US
Alexia Alexia means defender, and it is also a clinical term — alexia is the medical name for acquired inability to read, from the same Greek root by a completely separate route.
Girl Greek #1,040 in US
Gary Gary is a boy's name that reached the charts by an unusually traceable route: a surname became a steel town in Indiana, the town's name was given to an actor, and the actor made it a first name.
Boy English #1,074 in US
Sandra Sandra is a girl's name that began as an Italian short form of Alessandra and became independent in the twentieth century.
Girl Italian #1,207 in US
Gerald Gerald is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning rule of the spear, and it gave Ireland one of its great Norman dynasties, the FitzGeralds.
Boy Germanic #1,208 in US
Marc Marc is a boy's name from a Roman name probably meaning dedicated to Mars, the god of war, and it is the source of the month of March.
Boy French #1,240 in US
Luther Luther means army of the people, and its weight comes from a surname rather than a saint — Martin Luther's family name became a given name across the Protestant world, and then across Black America.
Boy German #1,463 in US
Barry Barry is a boy's name from an Irish surname generally traced to a word for a spear, though a Welsh island gives a competing route.
Boy Irish #1,526 in US
Chad Chad is a boy's name from a seventh-century English saint, and it has since become an American internet stereotype and, separately, the name of a country and a disputed ballot.
Boy English #1,700 in US
Gerard Gerard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave with the spear.
Boy Germanic #1,722 in US
Neal Neal has no agreed meaning — champion, cloud and passionate are all proposed for the Irish Niall and none is established.
Boy Irish #1,909 in US
Lou Lou is a girl's name in France, a short form of Louise and Louis meaning "famous warrior."
Girl French #1,927 in US
Edie Edie is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
Girl English #2,070 in US
Alexandre Alexandre is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind," the French form of Alexander.
Boy French #2,148 in US
Herman Herman means army man, and the German national hero Hermann is a Latin scribe's version of a Cheruscan name we cannot now recover — Arminius, the chief who destroyed three Roman legions in AD 9.
Boy Germanic #2,374 in US
Geraldine Geraldine was invented in a 1537 love poem — the Earl of Surrey coined it for Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, calling her the Fair Geraldine.
Girl Germanic #2,438 in US
Alphonse Alphonse means ready for battle, and it is Visigothic rather than French — the name came into Spain with the Germanic kingdom that ruled it before the Arabs, and reached French from there.
Boy French #2,534 in US
Sandro Sandro is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind," the Italian short form of Alessandro.
Boy Italian #2,585 in US
Finlay Finlay is a boy's name of Scottish Gaelic origin meaning "fair-haired warrior."
Boy Scottish #2,627 in US
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
Boy Germanic #2,661 in US
Ottilie Ottilie is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "prosperous in battle" or simply "wealth."
Girl Germanic #2,956 in US
Sandy Sandy shortens Alexander and Alexandra, meaning defender of the people — and in Scotland it is the standard familiar form of Alexander, which is why it reads as Scottish rather than merely short.
Unisex Scottish #3,020 in US
Hilda Hilda means battle, and it is the surviving fragment of longer Germanic names — Hildegard, Brunhild and Matilda all contain it, and the element outlived most of the compounds it belonged to.
Girl Germanic #3,025 in US
Maude Maude belonged to the woman who nearly became England's first ruling queen — the Empress Matilda fought her cousin for the throne through nineteen years of civil war the chroniclers called the Anarchy.
Girl English #3,346 in US
Sacha Sacha is a boy's name in France, the French spelling of the Russian diminutive of Alexander, meaning "defender of mankind."
Boy French #3,659 in US
Armand Armand is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "army man," the French form of Herman, borne by the cardinal who built the centralized French state.
Boy French #3,934 in US
Loïc Loïc is Breton, and its parentage is disputed — Louis and Eloi are both proposed, and the two are unrelated.
Boy Breton #4,096 in US
Mathilde Mathilde is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "mighty in battle," and its bearer commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry by tradition.
Girl French #5,823 in US
Garry Garry means spear, and it reached English through a steel town — Gary, Indiana was named for a US Steel chairman, and the place name did more for the given name than any of its Germanic ancestors.
Boy English #6,104 in US
Marcelle Marcelle is a girl's name meaning of Mars, the French feminine of Marcel.
Girl French #6,626 in US
Gertrude Gertrude is a girl's name from Germanic elements meaning spear-strength, and its saint is patron of cats — a modern attribution that no medieval source supports.
Girl Germanic #6,805 in US
Marceau Marceau is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little warrior," a surname form of Marcel that has become a first name.
Boy French #8,074 in US
Aloïs Aloïs is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior" — the same name as Louis, arrived at through a Latinized form rather than the French one.
Boy French #9,029 in US
Martine Martine is a girl's name meaning of Mars, the French feminine of Martin.
Girl French #11,505 in US
Cahir Cahir is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "battle-man," and the County Tipperary town of the same spelling takes its name from a different word entirely.
Boy Irish #12,770 in US
Sandrine Sandrine is a girl's name meaning defender of men, a French diminutive of Sandra.
Girl French 243,469 births
Hervé Hervé means battle-worthy, and it is Breton rather than French — a Brittonic name closer in ancestry to Welsh than to anything Latin.
Boy Breton 140,182 births
Ludovic Ludovic means famous in battle, and it is the same name as Louis and Ludwig — eighteen French kings and the composer all carry one Germanic compound in different national dress.
Boy French 131,146 births
Jean-Louis Jean-Louis joins God is gracious to famous in battle — and Louis is the same name as Clovis, so the compound contains the first and last forms of one word that named eighteen French kings.
Boy French 80,833 births
Ernestine Ernestine is the feminine of the same Germanic word as Earnest in this group — eornost, the vigor of a fight.
Girl French 59,749 births
Maud Maud is the same name as Maude and peaked ninety-three years later — the e-less spelling belongs to France, which set its high in 1981 while the American form was already a century past its own.
Girl French 51,526 births

Other Meanings