The Language Secretariat of Greenland

that the Greenlandic girls name, Kuuna, is believed to be a loanword from the Norse Vikings, kona, which means ‘woman’? This word was again used at a later date in the European-Greenlandic pidgin language, which was spoken while trading with whalers.

The word was first written down in 1654 as “Kona: Agnak” (woman) in the Danish historian, Peder Hansen Resen’s German-Greenlandic wordlist. The name is believed to have been commonly used in Southern Greenland, but has since spread to both Central Western and Northern Greenland.

Derivates of this name is found in old church registers as Kona and Konánguak (dear girl) in Paamiut around 1773. as Konalik (Kuunalik; ‘equipped as a woman’) in Qeqertarsuaq in 1782 and as Kunelik (Kuunalik) in Fredriksdal in 1824. The name ‘Gunelle’ which can be seen on Salomon von Hauen’s painting from Bergen dated 1654 as a name of one of the four captive Greenlanders, is probably a Europeanized transcription of the name Kuunalik.

It is possible that the girls’ name Konnane (Kunnana), which was written down in Nuuk in 1743 is a derivation of the same name.