Markers for feminine and masculine names in Old Norse?

Question

A question in two parts:

One, is there a way, other than original context, to determine whether a name in Old Norse is generally masculine or generally feminine?

Two, how would one go about feminizing a masculine name (or vice versa) in Old Norse? My particular interest in this case is the god name Mundilfäri, used for a male god; what would the feminine form of it be?

Answer 1

1. Sadly, Old Norse gender can't readily be seen just by the suffix.

   Male nouns generally end:

   • in -r, -ll or -nn if strong (e.g. Baldr, Heimdall and Óðinn)
   • and in -i when weak (e.g. Loki).

   Female nouns

   • take no suffix (but umlaut) when strong (e.g. Sjöfn)
   • and end in -a when weak (e.g. Freyja).

   However, there are a few female nouns (and names) that end with -r or -i, e.g. Urðr. Also, there are male names that look (and are declined) like female nouns, e.g. Sturla. As a rule of thumb, a male noun will always have a suffix, whereas a female one needn't, but as the Sturla example shows, that doesn't straightforwardly carry over to names.

2. I can't find any good etymology for the -föri or -fari or -färi in Mundilföri, which makes it hard to correctly predict all the sound changes you might have to do or undo to get a corresponding female form; also, a female form might just not exist since -färi might well be a male noun without a corresponding female one. People seem to think that it comes from fara, to go or travel, but I am not aware of a way of forming a nomen agentis in Old Norse with -i. Also, I don't know whether or not the Umlaut was derived via i-umlaut. With all these caveats, anything you do is guessing anyways, so you can pick the one you like best:

   • Mundilfara (replace male weak -i by female weak -a and undo possible umlaut)
   • Mundilfära (or -föra) if you'd like to keep the umlaut
   • Mundilför (or -fär(?) (I can't remember the letter ä in standardized Old Icelandic) for a strong female ending.

Answer 2

Adding to the comprehensive answer above (I don't have enough reputation to comment), feminine names also often end in -un(n).

Some examples taken from the sagas and Norse mythology are Guðrun, Þorunn, Iðunn, and Auðunn.

Here is a list of names taken from early Icelandic written source: http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/norse/landnamabok.html. See the section "Feminine Names" for some more examples.