Family name origins & meanings
- English : from the Old Norse personal name Grímr, which remained popular as a personal name in the form Grim in Anglo-Scandinavian areas well into the 12th century. It was a byname of Woden with the meaning ‘masked person’ or ‘shape-changer’, and may have been bestowed on male children in an attempt to secure the protection of the god. The Continental Germanic cognate grīm was also used as a first element in compound names. Compare Grimaud and Gribble, with the original sense ‘mask’, ‘helmet’. Some examples of the surname may derive from short forms of such names.