Valkyrie: Behind the Name

Valkyrie

val·kr·ee

 

Recently I've found myself telling the story of how Valkyrie's name came about to quite a few people, so thought I'd share how the brand name came about...

When visiting a friend in Norway two years ago a discussion around the meaning of names came up. I have a quite uncommon middle name, Hildi, which I knew had germanic/nordic origins. I knew it's meaning as 'ready for battle' but didn't know much about the history of the name.

After some discussion with my Norwegian friends and a little google searching I discovered that Hildi comes from the names Hildr, Brynhildr and other names of characters from old norse (viking) mythology.

These characters were the Valkyries - legendary warrior goddesses who had control over fate and the outcomes of wars.

A long time lover of mythology from many cultures (yep, nerd), I was instantly drawn to these figures.

There are so many options when naming a brand, and it can be quite a daunting process. I never wanted to name my brand after myself, but I did want to have a personal tie of some kind to it... Valkyrie was perfect.

A strong name with reference to powerful female figures that have an inspiring story around them.

I've extended this naming concept when it comes to the names of products. The Freya tights for example, are named after the Viking Goddess of war, beauty and fertility. The Venus bra is named after the ancient Roman Goddess of love. When the men's product comes they'll be named after Gods.

If you look at the logo, the V of Valkyrie is a stylised version of the Viking rune for v/w, and means ‘joy’. A core value of mine is to love what you do, so bringing joy to the brand and what we represent is very important.

So that's how the name came about - let me know in the comments if you have any questions or comments!

Meg x

 

image credit: pinterest.com