Inge

Inge is a given name in various Germanic language-speaking cultures. In Swedish and Norwegian, it is mostly used as a masculine, but less often also as a feminine name, sometimes as a short form of Ingeborg, while in Danish, Estonian, Frisian, German and Dutch it is exclusively feminine. The feminine name has the variant Inga.

The name is in origin a hypocorism of names beginning in the element Ing- (such as Ingar, Inger, Ingrid, Ingeborg, Ingram, Ingvild, Ingunn etc.). These Germanic names made reference to either the god Ing or to the tribe of the Ingvaeones (who were presumably in turn named for the god).

Inge is also encountered as a surname in the English-speaking world; the surname is usually pronounced in England to rhyme with "ring"; alternatively (especially in the United States) some families pronounce it to rhyme with "hinge."