Igerne as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Igerne

What is the meaning of the name Igerne ?

The baby name Igerne is a Female name , 3 syllables long and is pronounced ih-GUR-nuh (IPA: /ɪˈɡɜːrnə/).

Igerne is in Origin.

Igerne is a medieval Arthurian feminine name, a variant of Igraine. It enters Latinized chronicle tradition as Igerna in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae, identifying the mother of King Arthur, first wife of Gorlois of Cornwall and later of Uther Pendragon. Anglo-Norman and Middle English sources record spellings such as Ygerne and Igerne; French romances prefer Ygraine, and Malory helped fix the name in English literature. Actual given-name use has been rare, with scattered revival during the 19th-20th-century medievalist vogue.

Related forms include Igraine, Ygraine, Ygerne, and Igerna; Welsh cognates are Eigr and Eigyr, names borne by Arthur’s mother in early Welsh tradition. The etymology is uncertain: many scholars suppose Igerne/Igraine to reflect Welsh Eig(r)/Eigyr, but the underlying meaning is obscure. A tentative link to a Welsh adjective eigr (“chaste” or “pure”) has been suggested, yet remains debated; most treat the meaning as unknown.

⚙ Igerne is absent from every birth registry and name dataset we follow. It's the kind of name that tends to be rare, regional, or newly made up. Whichever it is, scarcely anyone else carries it.