Gender: Feminine
Origin: Old Norse
Meaning: “theft; robbery.”
General Scan (RAWN); Ice (ROWN) like the word Round with the d cut off
The name is borne in Norse mythology by a sea goddess.
The goddess Rán, is the subject of several Old Norse Prose Eddas, including the Skáldskaparmál, in which a poem entitled, Lokesenna, talks of her life and exploits.
According to the Lokesenna, Rán is the wife of Aegir, and with him, she has nine daughters.
Rán is also famous for capturing unsuspecting seafearers with her fish-net. In fact, her fish-net is also recorded in the Volsunga Saga.
According to some sources, she is married to the sea.
The name is still in usage in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. In Iceland, it is often used as a one syllable filler middle name.
As of July 2007, 37 women in Iceland bore this as a first name, while 325 had it as a middle name.
The name can also be a Japanese female name, meaning “orchid” 蘭
Interesting. A billion years ago, I was working in an indie bookshop a few doors down from an indie coffee house. One of the baristas had reinvented himself – from Ronald to Rawn. Really.
He would've been thrilled to know about the goddess.
Haha, that cracked me up. But hey, Ran does sound very similar to the male name Ron.
Well, if its any consolation to Rawn, I just found out that in Icelandic (where the name is currently still in usage) the name is actually pronounced like Round with the d cut off at the end. When I took Norse Mythology courses in Sweden, they did pronounce it RAWN.