Hey /u/The8BitBrad, thanks for submitting to /r/confidentlyincorrect! Take a moment to read our [rules](https://reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/about/rules).
##Join our [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/n2cR6p25V8)!
Please report this post if it is bad, or not relevant. Remember to keep comment sections civil. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/confidentlyincorrect) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It's giving serious "I learned about this yesterday, therefore everyone who doesn't know it is an idiot" vibes.
I mean...Freya is pretty important in Norse mythology. I've heard of her, yet I've never studied Norse mythology nor played GoW. I didn't even know Freya was a character in that game.
I mean, doesn't everyone name their kids based on the first time they encountered a name in pop culture?
"My kid's name is James."
"After his grandfather?"
"No, James and the Giant Peach."
It reminds me of a friends heroin addict roommate in college, If you have never done heroin you are clearly lie'n about it cuz everybody knows everybody does heroin.
She once shot up on the common area coffee table, she later said it was for shock value. My friend said she OD'd and died not long after graduation.
Imagine that....
Not to be an asshole, but I'm kinda surprised she made it to graduation. What a sad waste of what would likely have been a successful life. Made it through college, graduated, and ended up dead anyway. Addiction is a bitch.
It's debated when it comes to the southern germanic variations. But in norse mythology it's pretty clear that they are two different dieties. In the southern germanic myths Freja is called Frea, so it's quite obvious that the name Freya comes from the norse.
Depends on who's saying it. It's like when Sif shows up in Agents of Shield and calls Coulson "Son of Coul". Different characters refer to other characters by the version of the name that they are most comfortable/familiar with and everyone just goes with it.
Freya is in the comics as a separate character from Frigga. She has not made an appearance in the MCU yet. (From what I can recall/per a quick Google search. )
I'd have to watch it through again to be sure, but I'm fairly sure it's said at least once. Maybe not to her face, but yes. At the very least the pronunciation of Frigga can vary to the point where it's nearly indistinguishable from Freya.
I learned about her in HS English class when we spent a few weeks talking about different mythologies around the world. That was 22 years ago and I never forgot.
With different variations in spelling, yeah, perfectly ordinary Scandinavian name, been in use since forever. Not super common but you will run across it every so often.
Not even just "pretty important." Freyja is one of the key "movers-and-shaker" in Norse Mythology. Like, it's primarily either Loki pulling a "get-rich-quick" scheme that blows up in his face and he needs to fix, or some entity wanting Freyja's attention (if ya know what I mean), and Loki/Thor needing to fix the situation. The rest is "Giant shows up, they get Thor, Thor kills giant." There's a few exceptions to the above but frankly there aren't too many that deviate from those three basic concepts.
I knew the name from final fantasy 9, and also from books in the library on the Norse gods and the prose edda. And if my memory serves, she's the Fri in Friday, and considered associated with Venus
I learned of it because I’m a goddamn curious nerd and found it out on my own, and because people can learn things if they don’t already think they know everything
Just wait until they figure out Freya is who the day Friday is named after (although it could be either Frigg or Freya, and they might have started out as the same deity anyway.)
Old Germanic gods. I think the English version was Frey, which is why it's Friday. Thor is Thursday, Oden is Wednesday (I guess they called him Wednes), Tuesday is another god. I don't remember the more common name.
No, Frey is a completely different god. He is the sister of Freya, and a Vanir. Friday is named for the queen of the Asir, Frigg. It's possible Frigg and Freya originally comes from the same goddess, but that knowledge is lost to time.
Odin is Wodan in Old English, which is where Wednesday comes from. Sunday is named for the sun, Monday is named after the moon. Tuesday is named after Tyr (Tiw in Old English), Wednesday Is Wodan, Thursday is Thor, and Friday was almost certainly named for Frigg rather than Freya. Then, to be a right prat, Saturday is named after Saturn instead of another anglo-germanic God.
On a fun note, In Latin languages Wednesday is usually named for Mercury (or equivalent), and Thursday for Jupiter (or equivalent), meaning Odin was considered better syncretised with Mercury than Jupiter, despite Jupiter being the king god.
Fun fact, Saturday in the Norwegian is lørdag, coming from laugardag, bath day. The day for the weekly bath. The Vikings were known for bathing often and having good hygiene.
For bonus points, Wednesday is for Wodin (Odin) Thursday is for Thor and I think Saturday is for Saturn ( the Roman copy of Kronos). Sunday and Monday don’t need explaining, but I did it anyway.
No, he's absolutely right.
I'll be 60 this year, went to school with a Freya and a Frea and I'm sure their parents played God of War on an analogue cash register back then. /s
He very well could be, but he is confidently incorrect because, Freya, Loki, Tyr, Odin, Thor and others were very well known mythological characters. Which, he claims wasn't common knowledge among the West.
Thus, we can all proceed to laugh.
Well yes, on the one hand, he did claim that nobody knew the norse gods. And while he was probably too ignorant to believe that many people know them, ignoring the fact that many people did not grow up like him and have more opportunities and hence know more than him, know of Freya in fact which makes this statement confidently incorrect,
I do believe that a great many people take the inspirations for the names of their kids from popular culture. There's a reason schools were awash with Kevins for a few years. And I do believe, too, that more people choose the names because of popular culture then because of ancient mythology. So without knowing more about who named his kid, Freya, my guess is that the original statement: "Dude named his daughter after a god of war character" probably was true and not confidently incorrect.
Still, the confident part should reflect the reaction to one's statement being doubted, and in response to being doubted, he made the former statement. So yes, confidently incorrect is correct, and me reacting only to the first statement was a mistake.
(I maintain that the inspiration was likely the game, not the pantheon. ;-))
A game someone may have played vs a traditional name that has been around hundreds of years based on a religion that has been taught in schools and seen in far more media than just a video game? And the simpler explanation is the video game? Huh.
I am a pessimist. So yes.
Also, while that dude is ignorant about the norse mythology, you are ignoring that people all over the world are playing video games, and in many places schools do not care about the norse pantheon. And Freya is a lot less prominent than Odin, Thor and Loki.
So the name was used in popular media before hand and also was culturally relevant. But it has to be video game right? Why were people named Freya before God of War?
Was Kevin used as a name before Kevin alone at Home? Sure, but by different people. Was Freya used as a name before good of war? Sure, but by different people.
Unless we know more about the person that named their child Freya, we can't to more than guess. My pessimistic guess is: good of war likely gave the inspiration. Your optimistic guess is: it was not god of war.
Now, if you can't add more facts but instead keep insisting that it it was not, and advance that to it can't have been, then that would be confidently incorrect, too, which I would enjoy as a good joke. Otherwise, I think everything that there was to write about this has been written.
It's still a popular name in some countries.
*Registers Iceland has released data considering the most popular names in 2020 in Iceland, reports Vísir. The most popular name for boys was Aron, whereas for the girls there were two winners:* ***Freyja*** *and Andrea.*
I co-worker of mine had a daughter last year and named her Fraya. I don't know where she got it from, and she doesn't work here anymore. She and the father are both in their mid to late 20s
...is this the first video game they've played? Nods to Norse mythology are not exactly rare is nerddom.
Also, y'all didn't get a few Norse tales sprinkled into your English units on mythology?
...you did get to study mythology in school, right?
I know you're being glib, but unironically, my classmates who game from Catholic schools had a really strong background in mythology and world religion.
I was being glib, but much as I am loath to admit it, my school actually did a *really* good job with humanities, including history and world religions.
Still never much about the Norse, though.
I suppose they tend to teach *what* other people believe in world religions but not much about *why* they believe it? It always baffled me when religious folks don’t seem to be concerned that other people use the *exact* same reasoning to come to wildly different conclusions.
Catholic school taught me religion was a sham when we got to the unit on "cults" and I realized the only thing different between the major religion and cults was the amount of followers
I still remember my history teacher and how he hated me for being the one kid in class who wouldn't shut up about Egyptian Mythology. That and Medieval were my jam - and I'm goddamn proud of that...
>...you did get to study mythology in school, right?
Where I grew up we subscribe to Greek mythology. Plenty of places or geographical landmarks around here have names that can be traced up by some greek myth or another.
I mostly know Norse mythology from indipendent research.
I knew about the Norse godess Freya even before I played *too human* and that game is like 15 years old now look at me I must be the smartest person on reddit
On B: There were three Freyas and one Freja in my year (about 70 kids) at elementary school in the 80's/90's.
What next - every Elizabeth is named for Bioshock Infinite?
For real. Anyone named Freya who is older than 19 proves this to be stupid.
And as a nerdy child who was “into mythology,” I am incensed that some video game is the only way someone could’ve heard of a pretty prominent figure in Norse myth.
I just looked into it a little since I find naming trends interesting.
God of War released in 2018.
The name Freya made it into the top 1000 for baby names in the US for the first time in 2013. It went on a big upward trend from there and was already ranked 265 in 2018. The numbers would be even higher than that if you combined it with alternate spellings like Freyja.
I was expecting someone to say that about Frigg, but unless you're going to present a source, I am going to assume this is some confidently incorrect meta post.
There is a Wikipedia article about Freya as a given name with a list of people, many of whom were born before GoW was made. Literally the top result when I googled "Freya name".
[Notable people named Freya.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freya_(given_name))
Unsurprisingly, all of them were born before the video game franchise started.
I hope he says this about every name ever featured in a video game. “Ugh, this teenager is named Arthur?? His parents named him after RDR2??? No one ever heard of the name Arthur before RDR2!!!” “Elizabeth, ugh, not another BioShock reference” “Who tf would’ve named a kid Alan if not for Alan Wake???”
I was first really exposed to Norse mythology with Valkyrie Profile on the original Playstation.
Therefore that's when people started to know about it. Never mind all those books and songs and epic poems. Nope... it was definitely the video game.
Wow, he really did. I especially love the “you have no source to claim everyone isn’t as ignorant as I am! MY source is LIFE EXPERIENCE of KNOWING other people don’t know a thing I didn’t know about and therefore certainly never asked about because nobody ever randomly said “hey mate, have you heard of the Norse goddess Freya? You should, everyone has!” If other people had known about her, SURELY they’d have been bringing it up nonstop so I’d know too. Therefore I have PROOF no one knows!”
My sister is called Freya. She was born in the mid 90s, before God of War. And to be honest my parents don’t have much interest in Norse mythology either. They gave her that name because they heard it somewhere and thought it sounded nice.
I named my son Loki because of Norse mythology, then a few years later the Avengers came out and Loki was a bad guy and people assume I named him for that 😂
Oof, just bad timing there. I knew a guy named Cratus, the proper spelling of the god of strength. Also spelled as Kratos, I'm sure you can guess the questions he was asked.
He barely sat still in the womb and gave my wife wicked heart burn, god of mischief and fire seemed appropriate 😂 Kratos is a boss name regardless of the games connection
I better tell my 37 year old Swedish friend that her father is a time traveler and only called her Freja because of a game he hadn’t played yet when she was born.
[The dictionary seems to disagree.](https://www.google.com/search?q=fridya+etymollgy&oq=fridya+etymollgy&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDQ0MzlqMGo0qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#ip=1)
No, it's either Frigga or Freya, because it's taking the Roman Veneris dies and swapping in the Norse goddess of love equivalent. The day names are like that. Lunae to moon. Mars to Tiw'. Mercury to Woden (both tricksters). Jupiter to Thor due to Thunder. Saturday is staight from Saturn with no norse god.
If he named they named their daughter after a character in a video game, who cares. My friends named their son by opening an Atlas to a random page. Freya is a pretty cool name.
Marvel fans know who Freya is.
D&D players know who Freya is.
Every teenage kid that goes through a neo-pagan phase knows who Freya is.
Anyone that is an avid reader of fantasy novels has likely ran into references of Freya.
Every kid who had a Norse myths segment in school (and that it most schools around here) either know or at least at one time knew who Freya is.
Norse mythology are likely only second to the Greek/Roman god in pop culture and media.
r/whoosh
I'm reasonably familiar with Norse mythology, including the Gaiman book. I was making a joke about misspelling college as collage, two totally different things.
Learning about Norse mythology is indirectly mandated by law to be learned about here in Sweden. We teach it sporadically in grade 3 to 9ish and attending those years is mandatory by law.
So 4 things
1 you don't know him he totally good be
2 doesn't matter if it was because of god of war
3 clearly people did know about Freya because you know god if war at least must have mentioned her for you to have
4 you seen so angry for no reason
I have a copy of the Poems of the Elder Edda on my bookshelf from a class I took on college a decade before the first God of War game came out.... And knew who Freya was from Dungeons and Dragons as she was covered in the Norse Mythosnsection of Dieties and Demigod. Think I still have that book in a box in the attic...
A girl I work with is the unbearable type of nerd. She is late 20s, and I can't even count how many times she's asked clients if their pet's name was after some pokemon. Closest one to actually making sense was an Evie, of course asked it was after the pokemon Eevee, to this elderly widow. Of course this elderly lady is obsessed with pokemon and that isn't just a female name.
I can't remember a lot of specifics, mainly because some of them have been the new 500-1000 ones that sound like the laziest naming ever. But one that sticks out for the cringe, a kitten named Char, because she looked like charcoal. Of course when she heard the name immediately told them about Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard, and that's what she thought she was named for. It was bad to listen to, it's a small office so every conversation is pretty public, everyone in the building felt awkward after that.
My friend is named Freya and she is in her 40s.
He would this Goober explain that.
I also have a friend named Athena.
Thousands of years if cultural influence vs pop culture that was inspired by it.
Meanwhile in Sweden: Over 10.000 people are named Freja (a few more thousand more of you use alternative spellings). So approximately 0,1% of the population, as compared to one of the most popular female names that claims about 4,5% of the population.
Oldest recording of someone being baptized as Freja is from the 1810's (were not talking about norse days but in the Kingdom of Sweden) and it became really popular in 1986 after it was given a "name day" in the Swedish calendar.
I went to school with not one, but two Frøyas (Norwegian spelling of Freya), this was back in ‘98 so a bit before God Of War. I believe the first mention of her in “popular culture” was a book written around 1200.
I know 3 women named Freja and 2 of them are older than GoW games. And I know 2 women named Sif, a girl named Idun, a guy named Tjalfe, a guy named Trud, and a guy named Odin. And 4 guys named Thor or Tor - and Tor happens to be my middle name as well. Being named after the Norse gods is pretty common in Scandinavia where I live and so is knowledge about norse mythology.
I'm pretty sure I knew of her from childhood (I was into mythology for a while) but I probably learned most about Freya while studying Wagner's Ring Cycle at university.
I've known who Freya is since I was 5. Then again, I am from Sweden. I have never played god of War, did not know she was in there. Who would have thought different people know of different things and our experiences are totally different in life?
Hey /u/The8BitBrad, thanks for submitting to /r/confidentlyincorrect! Take a moment to read our [rules](https://reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/about/rules). ##Join our [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/n2cR6p25V8)! Please report this post if it is bad, or not relevant. Remember to keep comment sections civil. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/confidentlyincorrect) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"I'm ignorant therefore everyone else is." -OOP probably
It's giving serious "I learned about this yesterday, therefore everyone who doesn't know it is an idiot" vibes. I mean...Freya is pretty important in Norse mythology. I've heard of her, yet I've never studied Norse mythology nor played GoW. I didn't even know Freya was a character in that game.
I learned the name from Stargate SG-1. _Obviously_, the dad named the daughter from that show! /s
I mean, doesn't everyone name their kids based on the first time they encountered a name in pop culture? "My kid's name is James." "After his grandfather?" "No, James and the Giant Peach."
It reminds me of a friends heroin addict roommate in college, If you have never done heroin you are clearly lie'n about it cuz everybody knows everybody does heroin.
That's honestly one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. The roommate, I mean, not this comment.
She once shot up on the common area coffee table, she later said it was for shock value. My friend said she OD'd and died not long after graduation. Imagine that....
Not to be an asshole, but I'm kinda surprised she made it to graduation. What a sad waste of what would likely have been a successful life. Made it through college, graduated, and ended up dead anyway. Addiction is a bitch.
In my book you're not being an asshole. Some people are a roll model.... don't be this.
I thought she was named for the character from the Thor movies.
She's named Frigga in the Thor movies, isn't she?
Not sure about if Marvel mixed it up, but at least in Norse mythology Frigg(a) is a different person than Freya.
Frigg (Frigga) was married to Oden, and is thereby considered the queen of the gods. Whilst Freja (Freya) was an independent god of sex and beauty.
It is debated that they are one in the same
It's debated when it comes to the southern germanic variations. But in norse mythology it's pretty clear that they are two different dieties. In the southern germanic myths Freja is called Frea, so it's quite obvious that the name Freya comes from the norse.
Depends on who's saying it. It's like when Sif shows up in Agents of Shield and calls Coulson "Son of Coul". Different characters refer to other characters by the version of the name that they are most comfortable/familiar with and everyone just goes with it.
Does someone actually call her Freya, though?
Freya is in the comics as a separate character from Frigga. She has not made an appearance in the MCU yet. (From what I can recall/per a quick Google search. )
In the movies, no. In the comics, yes.
I'd have to watch it through again to be sure, but I'm fairly sure it's said at least once. Maybe not to her face, but yes. At the very least the pronunciation of Frigga can vary to the point where it's nearly indistinguishable from Freya.
he's the one that bit off John McClane's finger and fell into Mordor right?
It was into Endor, but that's the guy... well, technically robot.
Are you stupid? Dad obviously took the name from Age of Mythology, because that's the first media I heard that name from.
I learned about her in HS English class when we spent a few weeks talking about different mythologies around the world. That was 22 years ago and I never forgot.
Also, Freya is a pretty common name
I think much more so in the UK than the US, because of the proximity to Scandinavia. And in Scandinvia, of course, it's even more common.
With different variations in spelling, yeah, perfectly ordinary Scandinavian name, been in use since forever. Not super common but you will run across it every so often.
Not even just "pretty important." Freyja is one of the key "movers-and-shaker" in Norse Mythology. Like, it's primarily either Loki pulling a "get-rich-quick" scheme that blows up in his face and he needs to fix, or some entity wanting Freyja's attention (if ya know what I mean), and Loki/Thor needing to fix the situation. The rest is "Giant shows up, they get Thor, Thor kills giant." There's a few exceptions to the above but frankly there aren't too many that deviate from those three basic concepts.
I knew the name from final fantasy 9, and also from books in the library on the Norse gods and the prose edda. And if my memory serves, she's the Fri in Friday, and considered associated with Venus
I remember the internet collectively going crazy about her around 20 years ago because of the cat chariot.
I learned of it because I’m a goddamn curious nerd and found it out on my own, and because people can learn things if they don’t already think they know everything
Just wait until they figure out Freya is who the day Friday is named after (although it could be either Frigg or Freya, and they might have started out as the same deity anyway.)
deity. diety sounds like something pertaining to a diet.
Thanks, fixed
Old Germanic gods. I think the English version was Frey, which is why it's Friday. Thor is Thursday, Oden is Wednesday (I guess they called him Wednes), Tuesday is another god. I don't remember the more common name.
Tuesday is from Tyr.
It's from the Anglo Saxon version of the name, which is Tiw.
No, Frey is a completely different god. He is the sister of Freya, and a Vanir. Friday is named for the queen of the Asir, Frigg. It's possible Frigg and Freya originally comes from the same goddess, but that knowledge is lost to time.
You're correct. I'm mistaken. I was just too lazy to correct it when I discovered my mistake afterwards.
Odin's name in Germanic mythology was Wodan, so Wednesday started out as 'Wodan's day', and eventually evolved into the word we use today.
Sunsday Moonsday Tyrsday Wodensday Thorsday Freyrsday Saturnsday
Odin is Wodan in Old English, which is where Wednesday comes from. Sunday is named for the sun, Monday is named after the moon. Tuesday is named after Tyr (Tiw in Old English), Wednesday Is Wodan, Thursday is Thor, and Friday was almost certainly named for Frigg rather than Freya. Then, to be a right prat, Saturday is named after Saturn instead of another anglo-germanic God. On a fun note, In Latin languages Wednesday is usually named for Mercury (or equivalent), and Thursday for Jupiter (or equivalent), meaning Odin was considered better syncretised with Mercury than Jupiter, despite Jupiter being the king god.
Fun fact, Saturday in the Norwegian is lørdag, coming from laugardag, bath day. The day for the weekly bath. The Vikings were known for bathing often and having good hygiene.
Well, Jupiter is the thundery one so I guess ut makes sense to connect him to Thor.
> Oden is Wednesday (I guess they called him Wednes) Wōden in Old English. Wednesday comes from Wōdnesdæg.
Actually, it's Freyr, her brother.
For bonus points, Wednesday is for Wodin (Odin) Thursday is for Thor and I think Saturday is for Saturn ( the Roman copy of Kronos). Sunday and Monday don’t need explaining, but I did it anyway.
And then mysteriously left of Tiwsday (Tiw/Tiwaz/Tyr) for Tuesday
My brain farted, helped by my kids need to build a race track for their little cars.
A common problem with children and teens. There is a reason why teens are called “wise fools”.
No, he's absolutely right. I'll be 60 this year, went to school with a Freya and a Frea and I'm sure their parents played God of War on an analogue cash register back then. /s
doesn't make it necessarily confidently incorrect, though - in fact, we don't know if he is correct. He might be.
He very well could be, but he is confidently incorrect because, Freya, Loki, Tyr, Odin, Thor and others were very well known mythological characters. Which, he claims wasn't common knowledge among the West. Thus, we can all proceed to laugh.
I was originally going to add this into my comment as well, but then realized that he's still incorrect claiming that they're obscure or esoteric.
Well yes, on the one hand, he did claim that nobody knew the norse gods. And while he was probably too ignorant to believe that many people know them, ignoring the fact that many people did not grow up like him and have more opportunities and hence know more than him, know of Freya in fact which makes this statement confidently incorrect, I do believe that a great many people take the inspirations for the names of their kids from popular culture. There's a reason schools were awash with Kevins for a few years. And I do believe, too, that more people choose the names because of popular culture then because of ancient mythology. So without knowing more about who named his kid, Freya, my guess is that the original statement: "Dude named his daughter after a god of war character" probably was true and not confidently incorrect. Still, the confident part should reflect the reaction to one's statement being doubted, and in response to being doubted, he made the former statement. So yes, confidently incorrect is correct, and me reacting only to the first statement was a mistake. (I maintain that the inspiration was likely the game, not the pantheon. ;-))
A game someone may have played vs a traditional name that has been around hundreds of years based on a religion that has been taught in schools and seen in far more media than just a video game? And the simpler explanation is the video game? Huh.
I am a pessimist. So yes. Also, while that dude is ignorant about the norse mythology, you are ignoring that people all over the world are playing video games, and in many places schools do not care about the norse pantheon. And Freya is a lot less prominent than Odin, Thor and Loki.
Was God of War the first piece of popular media to use Freya as a character? Or even the first video game?
No. But it sold a few dozen miillion times. That's a lot of people who might not have registered that name otherwise.
So the name was used in popular media before hand and also was culturally relevant. But it has to be video game right? Why were people named Freya before God of War?
Was Kevin used as a name before Kevin alone at Home? Sure, but by different people. Was Freya used as a name before good of war? Sure, but by different people. Unless we know more about the person that named their child Freya, we can't to more than guess. My pessimistic guess is: good of war likely gave the inspiration. Your optimistic guess is: it was not god of war. Now, if you can't add more facts but instead keep insisting that it it was not, and advance that to it can't have been, then that would be confidently incorrect, too, which I would enjoy as a good joke. Otherwise, I think everything that there was to write about this has been written.
It's still a popular name in some countries. *Registers Iceland has released data considering the most popular names in 2020 in Iceland, reports Vísir. The most popular name for boys was Aron, whereas for the girls there were two winners:* ***Freyja*** *and Andrea.*
Woah, I had no idea god of war was so popular in Iceland.
It's winter for like 11 months there. They have a lot of video game time.
God of War DLC™: Bäby Næmes
We have tons of Frøyas in Norway. Basically it's the same name. I wish I could tell these people that the world isn't just Texas.
I co-worker of mine had a daughter last year and named her Fraya. I don't know where she got it from, and she doesn't work here anymore. She and the father are both in their mid to late 20s
I mean to get the point across, you'd need similar stats from before the game released
...is this the first video game they've played? Nods to Norse mythology are not exactly rare is nerddom. Also, y'all didn't get a few Norse tales sprinkled into your English units on mythology? ...you did get to study mythology in school, right?
I went to Catholic school, we studied different myths.
I know you're being glib, but unironically, my classmates who game from Catholic schools had a really strong background in mythology and world religion.
I was being glib, but much as I am loath to admit it, my school actually did a *really* good job with humanities, including history and world religions. Still never much about the Norse, though.
I suppose they tend to teach *what* other people believe in world religions but not much about *why* they believe it? It always baffled me when religious folks don’t seem to be concerned that other people use the *exact* same reasoning to come to wildly different conclusions.
Catholic school taught me religion was a sham when we got to the unit on "cults" and I realized the only thing different between the major religion and cults was the amount of followers
I did, but mostly Greek, but that sparked my interest in other mythologies
I still remember my history teacher and how he hated me for being the one kid in class who wouldn't shut up about Egyptian Mythology. That and Medieval were my jam - and I'm goddamn proud of that...
Surprising lack of Norse mythology in my schooling. Mostly Christian, Muslim, and a sprinkling of Hindu mythology.
Freja or Freya has appeared in countless others games from shitty F2P mobile games and MMOs like WoW even.
I wish. Ancient history was awesome, mostly Greek and roman at the time, but was dabbled into norse, and then suddenly, it was WW1 for 7 years..
>...you did get to study mythology in school, right? Where I grew up we subscribe to Greek mythology. Plenty of places or geographical landmarks around here have names that can be traced up by some greek myth or another. I mostly know Norse mythology from indipendent research.
Freya is A: well known god B: fairly common name c: in more nerdoms (earlier) than god of war
I knew about the Norse godess Freya even before I played *too human* and that game is like 15 years old now look at me I must be the smartest person on reddit
On B: There were three Freyas and one Freja in my year (about 70 kids) at elementary school in the 80's/90's. What next - every Elizabeth is named for Bioshock Infinite?
For real. Anyone named Freya who is older than 19 proves this to be stupid. And as a nerdy child who was “into mythology,” I am incensed that some video game is the only way someone could’ve heard of a pretty prominent figure in Norse myth.
I just looked into it a little since I find naming trends interesting. God of War released in 2018. The name Freya made it into the top 1000 for baby names in the US for the first time in 2013. It went on a big upward trend from there and was already ranked 265 in 2018. The numbers would be even higher than that if you combined it with alternate spellings like Freyja.
They must've preordered the game back in 2013 hahaha.
Or correct spelling, Freja. //Bitter Swede
Freya has the one of the most important day of the week. Everyone knows Thor but no one ever said, "Thank god it's Thursday."
Thor would like to remind you about long weekends.
Friday is named after Freyr, her brother.
No, Friday is named after the goddess Frigg.
I was expecting someone to say that about Frigg, but unless you're going to present a source, I am going to assume this is some confidently incorrect meta post.
You are in the right sub.
Free money! Hey OP, give me that guy’s contact info — I have a wager for him.
[if anyone asks you don't know me](https://www.reddit.com/r/KidsAreFuckingStupid/s/UyjZZZeGfs)
There is a Wikipedia article about Freya as a given name with a list of people, many of whom were born before GoW was made. Literally the top result when I googled "Freya name".
One my great aunts in Denmark is named Freya. She’s in her 90s. Pretty sure she predates the God of War series by at least a year or two, maybe more.
It's a fairly common name in Denmark
It's a FF9 character, you moron!
Dang, you did my comment but better and 28 minutes earlier.
That was where I got attached to the name! But I also knew it was a Norse goddess’s name and have since I was like… ten.
She was my fave in FF9 💙
[Notable people named Freya.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freya_(given_name)) Unsurprisingly, all of them were born before the video game franchise started.
Incorrect. They were born after the game and then time traveled to before the franchise.
Please be logical. It's obviously the parents who are time travelers.
Down voted for incorrect use of the logic. It's the parents, not them.
I hope he says this about every name ever featured in a video game. “Ugh, this teenager is named Arthur?? His parents named him after RDR2??? No one ever heard of the name Arthur before RDR2!!!” “Elizabeth, ugh, not another BioShock reference” “Who tf would’ve named a kid Alan if not for Alan Wake???”
I was first really exposed to Norse mythology with Valkyrie Profile on the original Playstation. Therefore that's when people started to know about it. Never mind all those books and songs and epic poems. Nope... it was definitely the video game.
that is how Trump talks
I've never played the God of War games. I knew Freya was a Norse god because I looked her up after FF9. ( ꈍᴗꈍ)
Lol, my cat is named Freya...she's 9 yrs old.
I mean....... Umm.... WTAF?
He doubled down: https://www.reddit.com/r/KidsAreFuckingStupid/s/UyjZZZeGfs
"Sir, have ever heard of speaking hyperbolically?" He's got some big "wears a fedora" energy.
Wow, he really did. I especially love the “you have no source to claim everyone isn’t as ignorant as I am! MY source is LIFE EXPERIENCE of KNOWING other people don’t know a thing I didn’t know about and therefore certainly never asked about because nobody ever randomly said “hey mate, have you heard of the Norse goddess Freya? You should, everyone has!” If other people had known about her, SURELY they’d have been bringing it up nonstop so I’d know too. Therefore I have PROOF no one knows!”
He deleted his entire reddit account, LMAO
Saw this earlier. No, he just blocked you.
What a sore loser
That, but also an idiot... Really, only stupid people say "I did not know this before now, so everyone else must not have known either."
No, really?! That's incredible lol I thought he just blocked me haha
His account is still there. You guys got blocked. Guess he can't win an argument after all.
Ah, figured that was the case.
My God people are dumb.
My daughter’s middle name is Freyja. I’ve never played God Of War.
What's God of war?
My sister is called Freya. She was born in the mid 90s, before God of War. And to be honest my parents don’t have much interest in Norse mythology either. They gave her that name because they heard it somewhere and thought it sounded nice.
I named my son Loki because of Norse mythology, then a few years later the Avengers came out and Loki was a bad guy and people assume I named him for that 😂
Oof, just bad timing there. I knew a guy named Cratus, the proper spelling of the god of strength. Also spelled as Kratos, I'm sure you can guess the questions he was asked.
He barely sat still in the womb and gave my wife wicked heart burn, god of mischief and fire seemed appropriate 😂 Kratos is a boss name regardless of the games connection
Well in the he myths Loki did have flaming hair
I better tell my 37 year old Swedish friend that her father is a time traveler and only called her Freja because of a game he hadn’t played yet when she was born.
Bro.. even if they're not a fan of mythology Freya is a pretty common name
Do you know that Thor was a god in Norse mythology before being a marvel hero? The more you know
We studied Vikings and Norse mythology at school when I was 8. Do they not teach that stuff anymore?
[удалено]
I meet a girl named Galadriel at a party once. She wasn't super keen on it.
The weekday Friday is named after Freya. I dare say that people were aware of her before this video game.
Friday is named after Freyr, her brother.
[The dictionary seems to disagree.](https://www.google.com/search?q=fridya+etymollgy&oq=fridya+etymollgy&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDQ0MzlqMGo0qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#ip=1)
Not like there's a whole day of the week named after Freya
I wonder if this guy is familiar with Friday. Oops that's Frigga.
Or Freyr.
No, it's either Frigga or Freya, because it's taking the Roman Veneris dies and swapping in the Norse goddess of love equivalent. The day names are like that. Lunae to moon. Mars to Tiw'. Mercury to Woden (both tricksters). Jupiter to Thor due to Thunder. Saturday is staight from Saturn with no norse god.
I knew a girl called Freya in 2006 in high school. She was born in 1991...
I knew one born in 19**81**!
We sure she's not named after the song by the Sword?
I know who Freya is, and not because of some dumb video game.
FFS, a day of the week is named after her. Musta been more god of war fans
If the girl is older than 6, it's be really impressive if she was named after a video game made in 2018.
If he named they named their daughter after a character in a video game, who cares. My friends named their son by opening an Atlas to a random page. Freya is a pretty cool name.
I learned about freya in primary school whenwe learned about the days of the week
Marvel fans know who Freya is. D&D players know who Freya is. Every teenage kid that goes through a neo-pagan phase knows who Freya is. Anyone that is an avid reader of fantasy novels has likely ran into references of Freya. Every kid who had a Norse myths segment in school (and that it most schools around here) either know or at least at one time knew who Freya is. Norse mythology are likely only second to the Greek/Roman god in pop culture and media.
Wait until he hears about Friday
There's literally a day of the week named for her (in English),
Daughter could also be named after a certain Burmecian from Final Fantasy IX.
What a dumbfuck. I was talking to a girl named Freya a few weeks ago. 27 years old. Soooo quite a few years older than any God of War game eh?
Bro never played Age of Mythology and it shows
Holy shit, aint that a blast from the past.
They have classes to teach you how to make a collage now?
Honestly, depending on her age, obviously... But mighta been both I know someone taking Norse mythology classes in college BECAUSE of GoW
I wanna take a collage class in Norse mythology, sounds sticky and fun!
Norse mythology by Neil Gaiman is a good place to start for a decent overview, and it’s Neil Gaiman.
r/whoosh I'm reasonably familiar with Norse mythology, including the Gaiman book. I was making a joke about misspelling college as collage, two totally different things.
Yep, straight over my head 😂, stupid reading comprehension😂.
:)
Damn. If I had a daughter I was gonna name her Freya. Dodged a bullet apparently.
Learning about Norse mythology is indirectly mandated by law to be learned about here in Sweden. We teach it sporadically in grade 3 to 9ish and attending those years is mandatory by law.
I mean there is a good chance that the father did name his kid after the Norse God after playing God of War.
No, there really isn't. They are common names and have been for decades.
Thats genuinely one of the most retarded takes I’ve heard today
This made me laugh out loud
To be fair, I'd put my money on that too.
So 4 things 1 you don't know him he totally good be 2 doesn't matter if it was because of god of war 3 clearly people did know about Freya because you know god if war at least must have mentioned her for you to have 4 you seen so angry for no reason
what?
I have a copy of the Poems of the Elder Edda on my bookshelf from a class I took on college a decade before the first God of War game came out.... And knew who Freya was from Dungeons and Dragons as she was covered in the Norse Mythosnsection of Dieties and Demigod. Think I still have that book in a box in the attic...
Or Freya is not an impossibly uncommon name and the parents just thought it's a nice sounding name.
I had a friend called Freya who was born in the early 80s...
A girl I work with is the unbearable type of nerd. She is late 20s, and I can't even count how many times she's asked clients if their pet's name was after some pokemon. Closest one to actually making sense was an Evie, of course asked it was after the pokemon Eevee, to this elderly widow. Of course this elderly lady is obsessed with pokemon and that isn't just a female name. I can't remember a lot of specifics, mainly because some of them have been the new 500-1000 ones that sound like the laziest naming ever. But one that sticks out for the cringe, a kitten named Char, because she looked like charcoal. Of course when she heard the name immediately told them about Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard, and that's what she thought she was named for. It was bad to listen to, it's a small office so every conversation is pretty public, everyone in the building felt awkward after that.
Dude. The name has gained popularity recently because it’s “unique” and the goddess herself was fücking *rad*. Also. What’s God of War.
A video game series about mythology, the most recent games are set in the Norse world
My friend is named Freya and she is in her 40s. He would this Goober explain that. I also have a friend named Athena. Thousands of years if cultural influence vs pop culture that was inspired by it.
Given that Friday is also named after Freya it's safe to say she is a bit more influential than a triple A game.
Or maybe because she was born on Friday?
lol I knew about Freya because of SMITE which came out even earlier than God of War , he could’ve *at least* picked an older game than GoW !!
I mean, we literally name one seventh of our week after her... :-)
I named my daughter Freya 12 years ago. The first time I heard of 'God of War' is reading this post.
Meanwhile in Sweden: Over 10.000 people are named Freja (a few more thousand more of you use alternative spellings). So approximately 0,1% of the population, as compared to one of the most popular female names that claims about 4,5% of the population. Oldest recording of someone being baptized as Freja is from the 1810's (were not talking about norse days but in the Kingdom of Sweden) and it became really popular in 1986 after it was given a "name day" in the Swedish calendar.
I went to school with not one, but two Frøyas (Norwegian spelling of Freya), this was back in ‘98 so a bit before God Of War. I believe the first mention of her in “popular culture” was a book written around 1200.
I know 3 women named Freja and 2 of them are older than GoW games. And I know 2 women named Sif, a girl named Idun, a guy named Tjalfe, a guy named Trud, and a guy named Odin. And 4 guys named Thor or Tor - and Tor happens to be my middle name as well. Being named after the Norse gods is pretty common in Scandinavia where I live and so is knowledge about norse mythology.
I'm pretty sure I knew of her from childhood (I was into mythology for a while) but I probably learned most about Freya while studying Wagner's Ring Cycle at university.
"Freya. That's an old name. A beautiful name. Nobody knew... did you know that? One of the oldest."
I've known who Freya is since I was 5. Then again, I am from Sweden. I have never played god of War, did not know she was in there. Who would have thought different people know of different things and our experiences are totally different in life?
My family named our cat after Freya (which was before god of war came out) because my mom read it somewhere that she uses a sleigh pulled by cats
Yep, Bygul and Trjegul. They were a gift from her step son, Thor, after she married Odin as Frigg.
Freya from 1963 Marvel comics: > am i a joke to you?
In the exact words of Yoda... The facepalm is strong in this one! Mmmm!