Cat Name Sven

Sven was adopted into a loving Swedish family. Sven is a boy, and Sven translated to English means boy. :)

Editor's note: Thank you for adopting a kitty and for adding to our list of names!

I went on the hunt to see if I could get my paws on some related information:

According to thinkbabynames.com, Sven does indeed mean boy or lad, (not that I doubted this) and "has 7 variant forms: Svein, Sveinn, Svend, Swain, Swen, Swensen and Swenson."

According to adoption.com, the name Sven is a male name of Scandanavian origin which means "youth." Similar names are Swen, Svend, Svenson, Svensen, Swensen, and Swenson.

Wikipedia gives the name derivation as Old Norse with the English meaning of "Young man" or "Young Warrior." The original spelling is said to be Sveinn and from this came the English word swain, a knight's servant.

I was searching around for some famous people with this name, and there are a few, but the fictional characters are probably more interesting.

Sweyn Forkbeard, referred to in English as Sven the Dane, was the first of the Danish kings of England and founder of the House of Denmark. He was also king of Denmark and much of Norway.

For something completely different, Sven Vollfied is a character known as a "sweeper" in the Japanese manga series, Black Cat.

Sven the Rogue Knight is a hero from Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a modification of the computer game Warcraft III.

And, Sven "The Governator" is a character from the movie Cars using, of course, the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor of "Kaaleefornya."

For girl cats, the corresponding female name would be Svenja, but Wikipedia indicates that this name is not commonly used outside of German-speaking countries.